Defense Attorneys Milking Cases

Defense attorneys are milking cases for all they are worth today. Two litigation attorneys I spoke with this week said they have never seen it so bad.

During “good times” defense attorneys that are paid by the hour usually milk a case for a minimum amount before settling. But as these law firms are getting less work than normal they are tending to make up the difference by spending more time per case. The net result is that it takes longer to settle a case than a few years ago.

If your attorney drops you

If your attorney has taken your case on contingency and subsequently doesn't like the odds of winning he will drop you as a client. Now there is a process they must go through including notifying you, making a motion to the court to withdraw as counsel and then receiving the approval of the court for withdrawal.

Before this motion has been approved they still have a duty to represent you but their heart is not really in it. So if they are bailing on you, you need to move into overdrive to get a new attorney. This will be twice has hard as getting an attorney the first time because the second group of attorneys will think one or more of the following situations exists:
1) you do not have much of a case
2) you are a difficult client to work with
3) the prior attorneys have messed up the case already
4) even if they win and collect a judgment they may have to share some of their fees with the prior attorneys.

I have worked with folks that try to resist their prior attorneys dropping them. And you need to understand why the case is being dropped and can the case and the relationship be salvaged but you also need to move into action to find a new one.