'Greed Knows No Bounds': Lawyer Gets Paid 135 Crore In Legal Fees Then Sues His Client For Another 41 Crore
A concert worker who won a $55 million settlement after he was grievously injured on the job, paid his attorney a $18.3 million legal fee. But now, his lawyer is demanding another $5.5 million.
A New York concert worker who won a $55 million settlement after he was grievously injured on the job, paid his attorney a $18.3 million legal fee. But now, his lawyer is demanding another $5.5 million.
Mark Perez has been embroiled in a dispute with his ex-attorney Benedict Morelli. Morelli is now claiming that he is entitled to $5.5 million in legal fees, and filed a lawsuit last month, according to the New York Post.
New York Post
¡°I think that lawyers should be paid well for their work, a person like me needs them to fight for them but for Mr. Morelli to take away so much of the settlement, it just seems wrong,¡± Perez recently wrote to the judge.
As per New York Post, Perez had originally received a $102 million jury verdict in 2019 after suing Live Nation
for an accident that happened in 2013.
A forklift crashed into the structure Perez was working on, causing him to fall 10 feet. He suffered skull fractures and traumatic brain injury that required multiple surgeries.
Perez and his attorney at the time, Morelli, agreed that Morelli would get one-third of the verdict award money as a contingency fee. But when the verdict went to appeal, Morelli repeatedly tried to negotiate an additional 10 percent fee.
law.com
However, Perez wanted to pay the lawyer an hourly rate, according to his counterclaims to the suit Morelli filed against him last month.
Perez never signed an agreement over an additional fee, but Morelli continued working on the case and he was able to get Perez a $55 million settlement.
In the end, Perez only received roughly $28 million from the settlement. The $5.5 million is being held in an escrow account while Perez fights for its return, in addition to all of the fees he paid Morelli.
New York Post/law.com
¡°[Morelli] continues to insist that he should be paid $5.5 million for the post-trial and appellate work (on top of the $18,333,333.30 that Mr. Perez has already paid in legal fees), demonstrating that Morelli¡¯s greed knows no bounds,¡± Perez¡¯s countersuit alleges.
Last week, Morelli asked a judge to throw out his former client's counterclaims, arguing that he never agreed to Perez¡¯s proposed hourly pay rate for the appeal work.
Morelli claimed that Perez ¡°chose to remain silent¡± about the extra 10 percent fee until the case had wrapped and the settlement was secured.
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