Attorneys take 100% of cancer stricken 9/11 worker's settlement

Originally from Bogota, Columbia, he came the the United States in February 2001 and after the attack was hired by contractors to clean the dust and rubble from the Merrill Lynch office. For $800 a week he would have to work 16 hour days with only a jumpsuit and paper mask for protection.

In the years that followed he became stricken with throat cancer and as a result is jobless, in debt to the tune of $30,000 and lives with his fiance and her two children. Then in 2005 he was handed a law firm’s business card and told that they could help him get compensated for his health problems.

The firm’s representative told him in a followup meeting that he stood to get 60 percent of whatever the lawyers managed to negotiate as a settlement.

Then in April 2010 he was told that he had gotten a $10,000 offer which he would be smart to take because if they went to court and they lost Galvis could end up owing over $100,000 in costs. Needless to say Galvis took the settlement and that is when insult was added to injury.

His award had been $10,005, but his lawyers at the firm Worby, Groner, Edelman & Napoli Bern lopped off $2,579 for unitemized legal expenses.

Then they took a 33.3 percent fee of $2,124.

They also subtracted $352, a fee to the lawyer who referred him.

The remaining $4,950 was withheld for unspecified “liens,” the letter says. Galvis thinks this was repayment of workers’ compensation for aid.



http://www.inquisitr.com/131014/911-wtc-worker-stricken-with-cancer-get-a-settlement-of-0-thanks-to-his-lawyers/

Two attorneys hired immigrants (illegal) to get involved in car accidents. One of the immigrants died and the lawyers were tried on a murder charge. During the investigation, you learned that another part of their lucrative income was to sue on the behalf of immigrants, settle for a large ammount, and would charge for everything leaving the injured with maybe $2,000 from a $100,000 settlement.

If I could unrec comments for using Law & Order as a source, I would.

Another unrec for using the "illegal immigrants" meme.

Another unrec for comparing someone many would consider a legitimate hero with a (presumably brown, you're probably not talking about illegal Belgians) criminal underling in a fantasy television show.

show and it's wrong in the real world. Who was the legitimate hero?

I also had to piece your response, to finally understand who was the "hero" you were writing about.

in parentheses "illegal", it was you're assumption that the immigrants I referred to, were brown. FYI, the immigrants were from Africa and Latin America. If you knew Law and Order, you would probably realize there was moral to the episode. In this one, it was that immigrants (illegal) were used and abused by a system that should have been there for them.

Those are supposed to be covered by the contingency fee.

The giveaway to the scam is the word "unitemized."

She was finally approved and got back pay for those 7 years plus for the one year prior to her application. Everything she got went to pay her legal fees.

The biggest chunk of his gross award is the "lien" part. The attorneys didn't take that. The Worker's Comp carrier has a claim against the worker to recover money he received from Worker's Comp. Standard practice is that the carrier serves a lien notice on the attorney, after which the attorney is required to hold the money in escrow until the carrier's rights are determined.

The legal expenses should be itemized in a closing statement. A contingency fee covers the lawyers' time but not out-of-pocket expenses (court fees, payments to expert witnesses, etc.).