Trial court was authorized to enter a judgment in favor of law firm that represented wife in divorce proceeding and, therefore, law firm had right to intervene in proceeding in order to recover from husband attorney's fees earned
Tydings & Rosenberg: A trial court allowed a law firm to intervene in divorce proceedings to recover fees from the husband after representing the wife.
By Laura Morgan, Family Law Consultant
The trial court was authorized to enter a judgment in favor of law firm that represented the wife in a divorce proceeding and, therefore, the law firm had the right to intervene in proceeding in order to recover from husband attorney’s fees earned; the trial court had statutory authority directly to a party’s lawyer, rather than to the party, and such statutory authority provided that an attorney could enforce an order requiring a party to pay a reasonable amount for attorney’s fees and costs in attorney’s own name.
Laura Morgan is a Family Law Consultant. Laura is available for consultation, brief writing and research on family law issues throughout the country. She can be reached through her website. www.famlawconsult.com
There is a reason why some lawyers never get sued no matter how many mistakes they make. The chief reason is that their clients “like” them. A successful practice can be measured in many ways. When you do a good job and get personal satisfaction from the work you do, you will usually find that financial rewards are quick to follow. Building solid relationships with your clients from the first meeting to the last is the key to both personal and financial satisfaction in the practice of family law.
Keeping your fee agreement ethical begins before you take the client. Under current law, technically, the old rules of hourly rate multiplied by the number of hours reasonably expended still apply. But especially in family law cases, appellate courts are scrutinizing the size of the fee in relation to the size of the issues involved, and the trend of calling out and criticizing lawyers in family cases suggests that we might have to start rethinking the way in which we calculate our fees.
