When lawyers fight

At least we can be sure that lawyers don’t treat each other any better than they treat other parties in litigation. Texas Lawyer provides us with a story of how two plaintiffs lawyers, who started out on the same side of a class action suit, managed to turn a dispute amongst themselves over $28,000 in […]

At least we can be sure that lawyers don’t treat each other any better than they treat other parties in litigation. Texas Lawyer provides us with a story of how two plaintiffs lawyers, who started out on the same side of a class action suit, managed to turn a dispute amongst themselves over $28,000 in fees into an eleven year fight with an ultimate award of over $250,000.

3 Comments

  • One thing that jumped out at me from reading the article, besides the obvious fact that high price lawyers can act like children, is that:

    Coghlan, principal in Houston’s Coghlan & Associates, says he and Bennett had a verbal agreement that Bennett would pay Coghlan a percentage of the attorney fees for his work on the Mrs. Baird’s litigation, a class action involving numerous plaintiffs and attorneys.

    Why would a lawyer take on work based on a verbal agreement? Wouldn’t a signed contract make more sense to prevent just such a dispute from happening? How much work would it have entailed to have his law clerk write up a contract? You would think a lawyer would know better that that. Maybe next time he should consult a lawyer before he agrees to do work without a written contract!

  • Don’t ya just love BAR fights?

    I do, well, as long as I’m not involved with them. HAR HAR!!