Lets assume that you have been involved in an accident that was not you fault and your Attorney has negotiated a settlement. But by the time you pay the Doctor he sent you to and then pay the Attorney his one third there is not very much left over for you. To make matters even worse, you probably signed a retainer agreement with the attorney agreeing to the one third or forty percent if he has to go to court.
You might consider having the Attorney ask the Doctor to lower his bill, in order to get you more money out of the settlement. But if the two of them are good friends not much is going to happen.
Here is what you could do. Tell the Attorney you are not happy with the settlement. He can’t accept it without your approval. Then let him know that if he can’t do better with a settlement you want to go to court. This is probably something your Attorney doesn’t want to do because he managed this settlement with a few simple phone calls, and now he may have to spend days in Court for just a few dollars more. Also, his friend the Doctor will have to spend some time coming to Court and testifying.
The Attorney is legally required to go forward with your case to Court, which of course he doesn’t want to do. So as he puts pressure on you to settle, simply suggest he cut his one third to twenty five percent and the Doctor cut his bill also. If your Attorney refuses, always keep in mind that when you reach those Court House steps the insurance company might very well increase their offer of settlement.