Q. I've always heard that referral fees are forbidden. But I know lawyers who routinely refer cases for a share of the profit, even if they're not licensed where the cases are pending. Isn't this unethical?
The Lawyer's Lawyer
Lawyers Helping Lawyers Avoid the Perils of Professional Discipline
Q. Injured on a Delaware highway, my old client spent the night in a Dover hospital, returned to Maryland for more treatment, and called me for representation. I'm not licensed in Delaware. May I take her case?
Q. As a high-volume accident lawyer, I've been approached by a marketing firm with "proprietary tools" that can send me at least a dozen cases per month. May I use this service?
Q. Unhappy with my client's engineering work, a huge contractor ignored my demand for payment of a $150,000 bill. It's a small sum to the contractor, but a lot of money for my client to lose. With more documents than cash on hand, my client wants to sue and fight "on principle." How should I engineer this?
Q. After ten months of discovery in a complex civil case, my client fired me for "taking too long" and refused to pay her bill. Now, her new lawyer has asked me for the file. May I keep it until I get paid?
Q. After lengthy litigation, we recently collected a large outstanding bill from a client who filed a frivolous counterclaim against us for malpractice. To prevent this from happening again, may we require binding arbitration in future retainer agreements?