After a Georgia truck accident case settles, the money does not always move directly from the defendant’s insurer to the injured person. Attorney fees, costs, and sometimes competing claims to a portion of the recovery have to be sorted out first. When a disagreement arises over how much a lawyer is owed, Georgia provides several recognized paths for resolving it. This guide explains how those disputes generally arise and the procedures Georgia law and the State Bar make available.
How fee disputes arise after a settlement
Most personal injury and trucking cases in Georgia are handled under a contingency fee agreement, meaning the lawyer’s fee is a percentage of the recovery rather than an hourly charge. A written contingency contract is required by the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, and it ordinarily states the percentage, how litigation expenses are handled, and whether the percentage changes if the case proceeds to suit or appeal.
Disputes after settlement tend to fall into a few categories. A client may believe the percentage charged, or the costs deducted, do not match the written agreement. A client may have changed lawyers during the case, leaving two firms each claiming a share of the same fee. Lawyers who jointly handled a case, or who referred it, may disagree about how to divide the fee among themselves. Trucking cases can be especially prone to this because they often run for years, involve significant litigation expenses, and sometimes pass through more than one firm.
The contingency fee and the discharged-attorney rule
Georgia law addresses what happens when a client discharges a contingency fee lawyer before the case concludes. A client has the right to discharge a lawyer at any time. When that happens, the discharged lawyer’s recovery is generally limited to the reasonable value of services actually performed before discharge, a measure known as quantum meruit, rather than the full contract percentage. Georgia courts have applied this principle to limit a discharged contingency lawyer to the value of work completed. Where a lawyer withdraws or is replaced, the total fee paid by the client is not supposed to exceed what a single lawyer would have charged, with the disputed portion divided based on the relative contributions of the lawyers involved.
The attorney’s lien under O.C.G.A. 15-19-14
Georgia recognizes an attorney’s lien by statute. Under O.C.G.A. 15-19-14, attorneys have a lien on their clients’ papers and money in their possession, and upon judgments and decrees for money they hold a lien superior to all liens except tax liens. The statute provides that no person is at liberty to satisfy a judgment until the attorney’s lien for fees is satisfied. The same provision allows a lawyer whose clients settle a case without the lawyer’s knowledge or consent, leaving the fee unpaid, to continue the original action for the limited purpose of recovering the fee. This lien is one mechanism by which a fee claim can be preserved and enforced when settlement funds are at stake.
State Bar of Georgia Fee Arbitration
The State Bar of Georgia operates a Fee Arbitration Program that provides a forum for resolving fee disputes outside the court system. According to the State Bar, the program handles disputes between a lawyer and a client over fees, and also disputes between lawyers, such as disagreements over dividing fees from joint services or arising from the dissolution of a practice. This makes it relevant both to a client who questions a fee and to two firms contesting how a trucking case fee should be split.
The State Bar describes the program as a free public service. A party initiates it by filing a petition. Both the petitioner and the respondent must agree to participate, and the program offers binding arbitration, meaning the parties agree in advance to be bound by the outcome. The State Bar indicates that hearings are commonly conducted by a panel that includes experienced attorneys and a non-attorney member. Because the process is voluntary and binding only on those who consent, a party who does not agree to arbitrate cannot be forced into the program through it alone.
Resolution through the court
When arbitration is not used, or when parties do not consent to it, fee disputes can be resolved through the courts. A lawyer may pursue a claim for fees, and a client may contest a fee, in civil litigation. Where a case is still pending or where an attorney’s lien has been asserted, the court that handled the underlying matter often has authority to determine the amount of the fee and how settlement proceeds should be distributed. Courts evaluating a contested fee consider the written agreement, the reasonableness factors set out in the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, and, in discharge situations, the value of services actually rendered.
Some fee agreements contain their own arbitration clauses. The Georgia Supreme Court has addressed arbitration provisions in attorney-client contracts, and such clauses, where validly entered, can direct a dispute to private arbitration rather than to the State Bar program or to ordinary litigation.
Distribution of disputed funds
When a settlement is reached but the fee remains contested, the disputed portion of the proceeds is commonly held in the lawyer’s trust account or otherwise set aside until the dispute is resolved. The Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct require a lawyer to keep property in which both the lawyer and another person claim an interest separate until the competing claims are settled, and to promptly distribute the undisputed portions. This allows the injured person to receive the parts of the recovery not in dispute while the contested fee is determined through arbitration or by a court.
Summary
Resolving an attorney fee dispute after a Georgia truck accident settlement generally proceeds through one of several channels: the State Bar of Georgia’s voluntary, binding Fee Arbitration Program; arbitration under a clause in the fee agreement; or litigation in court, often before the same court that handled the underlying case. The attorney’s lien statute, O.C.G.A. 15-19-14, protects a fee claim against settlement proceeds, and the quantum meruit rule governs how much a discharged contingency lawyer may recover. Disputed funds are ordinarily held separately until the matter is resolved.
Disclaimer
This article is provided strictly for general educational and informational purposes. It is intended to explain how Georgia law works as a matter of public legal education, and it does not constitute legal advice, a legal opinion, or a recommendation about any particular course of action. Reading this article, or contacting the website on which it appears, does not create an attorney-client relationship between the reader and any law firm, attorney, or author.
The law changes over time. Statutes, regulations, court rules, and judicial decisions discussed here may have been amended, repealed, superseded, or reinterpreted after the date of publication, and citations to specific code sections or cases reflect the law only as it was understood when this article was written. The application of any legal principle also depends heavily on the specific facts and circumstances of an individual matter, and outcomes vary from case to case.
For these reasons, no one should rely on this article as a substitute for advice from a licensed Georgia attorney who can review the particular facts involved. The author and publisher make no warranty, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or applicability of the information provided, and disclaim any liability for any action taken or not taken based on this content.