Florida lawyers who ink referral contracts can be fired by their clients, negating the chunk of contingency fees they claim in a winning case, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.
A woman whose husband died in a plane crash was legally entitled to fire her aunt from her negligence case, despite the family member’s 25% contingency fee contract for analyzing the matter and helping her niece find counsel.
The Third District Court of Appeals reversed a $140,000 fee award for the aunt, Ana M. Frexes, saying the trial court misread the state’s referring attorney law in a way that would ...