it's a common practice

Lawyer usually takes 1/3 of the final settlement. It's called contingent fee. That is why your lawyer wants to make sure that the landlord still have something valuable. If your landlord has 0, then 1/3 of 0 is still 0. Then your lawyer won't waste time to sue your landlord. Lawyer doesn't work for free, they have to make sure they get something before they take your case. This is also reasonable for you. Because lawyers can not gurantee they can win. Good lawyer has better chance to win. If they lose the case, they don't get paid, right? If any lawyer wants to charge you an hourly fee in this case, you definitely should stay away. After the agreement is signed, everything between you and your lawyer is governed by the agreement. There is no point to suspect if they are lying or not now. The landlord deals with his lawyer, he pays his lawyer to defend his case. You have nothing to do with his lawyer.

所有跟帖： 

• 回复：it's a common practice -钰飞- ♂ (62 bytes) () 04/25/2006 postreply 17:43:40

• Usually not. -Bodd- ♀ (0 bytes) () 04/26/2006 postreply 09:41:04

• I mean usually can't. -Bodd- ♀ (0 bytes) () 04/26/2006 postreply 09:42:04

• Your landlord can't ask for you to pay his lawyer -selfselfself- ♂ (401 bytes) () 04/27/2006 postreply 08:01:56