SI Ferry Victim Lawyer Gets His Payday

Everybody gets a cut...

The lawyer who won an $18.3 million settlement with the city for his client who was paralyzed in the 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash has won the right to keep his $6 million attorney fees. Lawyer Evan Torgan had represented James McMillan, who was paralyzed from the chest down after flying debris from the crash slashed into his spine. When they originally won the lawsuit, Brooklyn Federal Judge Jack Weinstein cut his attorney's fee from the standard 1/3 to 20 percent, because "by the time McMillan's case went to trial, the city's liability had already been proven by other lawyers repping other injured persons," the Post reports.

McMillan wanted his lawyer to get his full amount however, and testified on Torgan's behalf. Judge Weinstein ended up reversing his own decision, without giving a specific reason why. However, Torgan's money will be placed in escrow for now, because a separate lawsuit involving the crash victim's lawyers who established the city's liability is still on-going; they are seeking cuts of the fees collected by those lawyers, such as Torgan, whose cases benefited from their work.

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By Ben Yakas in News on April 14, 2010 6:34 PM

Comments [rss]

JRod5417

I don't see what the big deal is. The lawyer did his job satisfactorily and should get the standard 1/3 of the judgment. This "lets kill lawyers" mentality is really juvenile. Next time anyone here you gets injured due to a gov't agency, we'll see you how quickly you'll change your tune.

blkiznewprez

McMillan was satisfied by the job his attorney did. The fees are outlined in the contract. If all lawyers were killed, people like McMillan would not get judgments against the city, even if the city acted with blatant negligence.

Everyone hates lawyers until they or a person they love gets fucked up due to another's negligence and then they're the first in line to find a lawyer who will get them the biggest multi-million dollar judgment. If your child ever gets mowed down by a drunken cop or a sleepy MTA bus driver, I'm sure you won't be sitting there doling out forgiveness. You make those assholes pay, and you do that by suing the crap out of them.

nicemarmot

Do you actually think the guilty parties pay when you sue an MTA employee or a cop??? No, WE PAY THAT, OUT OF OUR TAX MONEY. That is why people hate lawyers! If they just sued rich assholes, no one would mind, but they don't, and then they act like justice has actually been done when the MTA murderer goes unpunished and the victim gets a payout from the government...which was never actually responsible in the first place - the employee was.