QUESTION
In a settlement, is the money supposed to go straight to the lawyer?
Asked on Nov 27th, 2020 on Business Law - Tennessee
More details to this question:
My dad and his brother used to share a store before someone bought the land and kicked them out. Due to this they got a lawyer and we reached a settlement with the company in order to leave the store willingly. Me and my family feel like there was foul play involved with my dads brother and the lawyer that we hired and we feel like they got more money out of the settlement without telling us. Today we finally received the check only to see that it’s in our lawyers name. Is it right that the money was sent to the layers account first or is that how it works?
1 ANSWER
That is how it works. In most states (I don't know about Tennessee) your attorney would have a statutory lien on the proceeds of the lawsuit to cover his/her fees. The money is generally sent to the attorney who would pay the amounts owed for fees and disbursements , with the approval of the clients, and then distribute the remainder. If there is a dispute between the clients as to how hte funds should be distributed, the disputed money would generally be held in escrow by the attoreny until the dispute is resolved.
Answered on Nov 28th, 2020 at 8:03 PM