The,Enforcement,Attorney,Retai law The Enforcement of an Attorney's Retaining Lien
When you work with an attorney, you will have no problem reducing the risks associated with getting your case in front of a judge and jury, or other formal court, when you need to. However, every case is different. It is important to work wi Bankruptcy is a situation, wherein an individual is termed as unable to discharge all the debts. When a person or a company is not able to pay off its creditors, it has an obligation to file a bankruptcy suit. In fact, a bankruptcy suit is a
In the well-cited case of the New York State Court of Appeals, People v. Keeffe, 50 NY2d 149,428 NYS2d 446 (1980), the Court reviewed the rights of attorneys with respectto statutory charging liens pursuant to Judiciary Law Section 475 andcommon-law retaining liens. The two types of liens are non-exclusive and may beasserted in an action when applicable. Concerning attorneys retaining liens inparticular, the Court noted:The [attorneys retaining lien] entitles the attorney to retainall papers, securities, or money belonging to the client which comes into hispossession in the course of his professional employment until the amount of hisfee is fixed by agreement or by litigation, and is paid.The Appellate Division, Second Department, in recognizing the retaininglien of an attorney, held that it was error on the part of a trial court todirect prior counsel to transfer the papers upon which the attorney had aretaining lien before (a) determining the value of the attorneys services, and(b) assuring that payment for those services was adequately secured. Mint Factors v. Cedar Tide Corp., 133 AD2d 222, 519 NYS2d 27 (1987). Accordingly, the attorneys retentionof the files of his client, which came into his possession through the courseof his professional employment, is lawful, and he is entitled to assert hisretaining lien pending the fixing of his fee and payment thereof.In Rivkin v. A.J. Hollander& Co., Inc., 1996 WL 633217 (SDNY 1996),the court opined that: The retaining lien, asserted against papers thatotherwise have little intrinsic value, is valuable only because of theinconvenience caused to the client from denial of access to papers involvedin the lawsuit. In his decision in Rivkin, supra, Magistrate Judge Peck held that to require prior counsel to provide suchpapers to new counsel would effectively eliminate the retaining liensprotection. Further, Magistrate Judge Peck stated: While the Court always is anxious to move its docketexpeditiously, it will not do so at the expense of prior defense counselsretaining lien. The retaining lien protects and supports substantial value in the formof the holding of the client file in anticipation of payment by the client.In Eighteen Associates LLCv. Nanjim Leasing Corp., 297 AD2d 358, 746NYS2d 599 (2002), the Appellate Division, Second Department held that, in theabsence of exigent circumstances, an attorney should not be compelled tosurrender the clients file and the attorneys lien should be respected.Exigent circumstances are determined on a case-by-case basis, considering factssuch as the nature of the action (e.g. criminal or matrimonial matter) or theclients indigency.by RichardA. Klass, Esq.Copyright 2006License InformationThe Enforcement of an Attorney's Retaining Lien by Richard A. Klass, Esq. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. For permissions beyond the scope of this license, please contact Mr. Klass (email: [email protected]). Insert the words "reprint permission request" in the subject line of the email.Publishing GuidelinesPermission is granted to publish this article electronically infree-only publications, like a website or ezine (print and non-freepublications require permission) as long as the resource box is includedwithout any modifications. All links must be active. A courtesy copy isrequested on publication (email: [email protected]).Article URL:http://courtstreetlaw.com/articles/attorney-fee-collections-articles/enforcement-of-attorney-retaining-lien.htmlAuthor Name:Richard A. Klass, Esq.Contact Email Address:[email protected]'s Firm's Website:www.CourtStreetLaw.comWord Count:507 words
The,Enforcement,Attorney,Retai