Recent Important Decisions

Attorney and Client – Attorney’s Charging Lien – Having agreed by contract to pay his attorney fifty percent of the proceeds recovered, the client, while suit was pending, and without the consent of his attorney, settled with the defendant for $3o. The attorney then gave notice of his claim to the defendant, and the district court, after hearing the case, gave judgment to the plaintiff attorney for $1oo. There was a statute (N. J. LAWS OF 1914, ch. 201, p. 410) which gave a lien to an attorney on the proceeds of a settlement out of court. Held, the action of the district court was unwarranted, in the face of the written contract, which entitled the attorney to only fifty percent of the settlement. Levy v. Puiblic Service Ry. Co. (N. J. 1916), 98 Atl. 847.