Who Pays Your Defense Base Act Attorneys Fees ?
Posted by defensebaseactcomp on February 15, 2011
Alert: We have received a report that a DBA Attorney is taking part of a claimants compensation checks. This is very low tactic and we hope this attorney is soon exposed.
The Defense Base Act provides for your attorney fees to be paid for by the Insurance Company.
9th Circuit Court Upholds LHWCA/DBA Attorney’s fees
You would probably not be at this blog nor would you need an attorney if your claim were not disputed.
Your DBA Attorney is required to keep track of their hours and expenses (receipts) for the duration of the legal process and turn them in to the ALJ or DD for approval and subsequent payment by the DBA Insurance Company when they have in fact succeeded in securing an award in your favor.
It is not illegal for a Defense Base Act Attorney to charge Injured Contractors and Widows these fees.
The fees do have to be approved by an ALJ or DD and we do not know why an ALJ or DD would allow this.
But it might just be illegal for a Defense Base Act Attorney to have Injured Contractors and Widows sign on to pay as much 40% without ever disclosing to them that they are not required to do so under the Act.
We’d love to hear what excuses these attorneys are using to bleed more money out of the Injured Contractors and Widows, many of them foreign and more susceptible to this treatment.
Please let us know in the comment section below if you have been asked to pay your attorneys legal fees.
Fee When Carrier Declines to Pay Compensation. Under section 28(a), if an EC does not pay any compensation within thirty days after receiving written notification of a claim being filed, and the case is later settled at the informal level in favor of the claimant, the DD/CE must assess the fee for an attorney against the EC
Fee Where Voluntary Payment Made, But Controversy Arises Over Amount of Additional Compensation.
- If the EC voluntarily pays compensation without an award and a controversy develops over the amount of additional compensation (if any) to which the claimant may be entitled, the DD/CE shall, within ten days of knowledge of the controversy, set the case for an informal conference. Either at the conference or afterwards, the DD/CE is to recommend in writing the disposition of the matter. If the claimant has utilized the services of an attorney during this period to obtain additional compensation, any additional legal fee (based on efforts to obtain additional compensation) is to be assessed against the EC.
Continue reading here to learn why your informal conference is so important to you which we will soon post on.
Marcie Hascall Clark said
Mark Schaeffer, Washington DC. told us he would only charge us 20 percent, which was a bargain in his words.
He never disclosed to us that the insurance company paid the claimants legal fees.
It wasn’t until we hired a different attorney that we found out.
You can see claim after claim where he collects his fee from his clients rather than the insurance company.
Marcie Hascall Clark said
I should add here that Mr Schaefer had no problem presenting a bill for payment to CNA long after the fact.
dante said
What are you talking about, i paid Gary Pitts $5000,00 per cheque for his “expenses” and an additional $3000,00 he recovered at the written pledge of Roger Levy from CNA to reimburse my expert witness (i had to pay for everything upfront) for his four-hour long deposition via satelite.
No judge ever approved the $8000,00 dollars (eight thousand dollars) i paid to my first DBA lawyer Gary Pitts after he lost my case but before he turned in the BRB brief (inexplicably skipping the motion for reconsideration).
Lawyers like David Barnet are charging widows more for their services then they get paid out in the end.
This is beyond digusting. More and more you see settlement awards matching lawyers fees and the ALJ’s just endorse it. It’s become a total racket, involving judges, lawyers from both sides deciding in advance what happens in any particular case, in short its worse than the mafia.
A sure denial is any claimant who has ever spoken to the media, no matter how local or insignificant.
Now does this raise a red flag or what?
anonymousonpurpose said
Hello Dante!
Amazing you should say that last line…I had my small town newspaper article AND THIS VERY WEBSITE USED AGAINST ME….It was quoted in my D&O despite being barred as “hearsay’!
I still cannot believe I have all of the facts and Dr.’s testimony on my side yet here I sit years later in intense pain WAITING…
maybe one day
Gary B. Pitts said
Mr. “Dante,” does not identify himself, but his allegation is in every respect a a lie. I have never represented any client who had an email address address or referred to himself as “Dante.” I have never been paid any money from any Defense Base Act client ever. If they win or settle a DBA case, attorneys representing DBA clients get paid whatever the U.S. Dept. of Labor orders the insurance company to pay them, usually years after beginning work on the case. If there were a lot of money in handling these cases there would be a lot of attorneys handling them. There are very few who are willing to handle them. If Mr. “Dante” will be kind enough to identify himself and his address to me, I will be happy to consider suing him for libel. Gary Pitts
Marcie Hascall Clark said
Gary Pitts says:
“If there were a lot of money in handling these cases there would be a lot of attorneys handling them. There are very few who are willing to handle them”
That’s an old song your singing Gary. There are attorneys all over the US clamoring for DBA claims. New advertisements pop up everyday. Try a google search.
The DBA Attorneys who actually do the work to be able to file for the hours are being awarded very substantial fees.
Who Pays Your Defense Base Act Attorneys Fees: Dante replies to Gary Pitts « Defense Base Act Compensation Blog said
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Lance Tyler Thomas said
My Attorney at the Turley Law Firm in San Diego, CA. I was told me he will recieve 12-18% of the total DBA compensation paid to me from CNA Global. The 12-18% could vary depending on long it took for me to get my claim settled! Please inform me on what I need to do about this.
Thank you,
defensebaseactcomp said
Lance,
Mr Turley has a lot to do with how long your claim will take to be “settled” and so I would be concerned about that.
Why he or any of these attorneys needs to take his fees from the claimant is beyond me.
Maybe you could ask him for us, he did not respond to us.
Certainly it makes the insurance company happy.