Equity Can Play a Role In These Disputes, Rules Fourth District, Division 3.
Barnes, Crosby, Fitzgerald & Zeman, LLP v. Ringler, Case No. G045872 (4th Dist., Div. 2 Dec. 19, 2012) (published) goes to show you that equity does interplay with ethical fee-sharing restrictions.
Here, the Fourth District, Division 3, in a 3-0 opinion authored by Justice Ikola, held that an attorney may be equitably estopped from claiming a fee-sharing contract in a class action is unenforceable where that attorney may have been responsbile for noncompliance with the fee-sharing restrictions and may have unfairly prevented the other attorneys from complying with such mandates.
The appellate court reversed a trial court ruling based on fee-shifting restrictions, finding that the controlling class action attorney may have steered client control to impede the fee-sharing attorneys from getting a written fee split agreement. Any other result, said the court, might “have a dampening effect on attorney referrals.”
So, even though the trial court awarded $13.5 million in fees to the offending attorney, it did not preclude supplemental pleadings by the aggrieved attorneys on the equitable estoppel theory.
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