Re: Overbilling Attorney

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This case below appears to be almost identical to yours where
an attorney took a fee of 33% of life insurance proceeds. The
client after signing a fee agreement and paying the fee later
sued the lawyer and the court ordered the entire fee
returned. A lawyers fee must be reasonable and a contigentcy
fee is not necessarly appropriate where there is little or no
risk or no indication the insurance company will resist the
claim. I think you may have a lidgimate claim and after
reviewing the below case(and many others like it)you are
convinced the fee was excessive! Go for it, I did.
Note:you will probably have a hard time finding an attorney
that will advise you to do so for obvious reasons. Please
feel free to e:mail me. Not an attorney just a person thats
been there.
In the case of Beckman v. Gwiazda, No. CV 90-0439394S, 1991
WL 158156, *5 (July 31, 1991), court determined that the fee
charged by the attorney was unreasonable under Rule 1.5 due
to attorney's minimal and inadequate services, and
consequently ordered fee returned.

This is a good ethics site at Cornell university
http://www.law.cornell.edu/ethics/ct/narr/CT_NARR_1_05.HTM#1.5
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