Saturday, October 9, 2021

Harry Dunn Case Update: The Settlement Becomes Unsettled (Money for Lawyers)

















The laborer is worthy of his hire, it says in the Good Book. That even applies to highly political Washington law firms. 

Yesterday, Friday October 8, 2021, the first firm of attorneys to represent the Dunn family in its suit against the American driver filed a sealed motion for attorney's fees in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, as well as a sealed memo and eight sealed exhibits in support of the motion. 

The legal firm of Cohen Milstein first met with the Dunn family way back in December 2019, filed the suit in September 2020, and worked for them up until May 2021. That's a lot of billable hours for three partners at about $1,000 each per hour, plus one lesser-paid associate. 

In May, there was a mysterious falling out between Cohen Milstein and their clients which caused the firm to withdraw from the case. A second law firm took over and got the case to settlement - reportedly - one month ago. 

I say reportedly, because I notice that the Dunn family's spokesman / Svengali has referred to it only as a "resolution" whenever he has done media work, which he does a lot of for someone who insists he is 'not allowed to discuss the case.' 

Surely the Dunn family understood they would have to pay their lawyers, even the ones who had separated themselves from the case. The insurance company (and presumably it was the insurance company who covered her and not the driver personally who paid) agreed to a payout a month ago, the amount of which is undisclosed. Now, it seems the matter of how to divvy up the insurance company's payout between the Dunn family and the many lawyers who have represented them is not quite settled. Otherwise, why would Cohen Milstein see a need to file a claim for its fees?  

As best I understand the rules of these things, attorney fees are paid before client claims for damages, and the fees will be determined according to the agreement which the firm and its clients reached back when they signed a contract. Maybe they work on a contingency basis and get a percentage of the settlement payment, usually a third. 

So the old lawyers will get a slice of the settlement, the new lawyers get another one, and the family gets what's left over. I don't know how UK tax laws work, but usually money from damages is not taxed as income, so let's assume the taxman doesn't take yet another bite. 

The millions of dollars that their blowhard advisor promised the family from a U.S. lawsuit McDonalds-coffee-spill-style are melting away. There probably wasn't much of a settlement in the first place, although we don't know that since those details are confidential and have not yet been spilled.

Visions of Ibiza and Marbella may have to give way to more sensibly priced UK holiday destinations.   

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

TSB: My favorite aviation historian/pilot/ reporter Juan Browne, who is an American Airlines pilot says that as of Friday, about 4,000 US pilots aged 59 to 65 are resigning rather than take the covid vaccine. At the same time airlines are trying to recruit and train 20,000 new pilots. He says this will create a mess like we have never seen before for this holiday season. Few retirement age pilots are eager to take the vaccine and risk becoming a "rare breakthrough case" that leads straight to a nursing home! Also, Tulsi Gabbard
was promoted to Lt. Colonel on July 4th, 2021 as a civil affairs officer in Africa. That is a tremendous accomplishment for a young woman that took 20 years to achieve. gwb

TSB said...

GWB: I'm happy to hear the news about Gabbard. Civil Affairs is the best field for reservists, IMHO.

Anonymous said...

TSB: I forgot to mention all the airline staff, attendants etc who are also "not happy" and not readily replaceable. Of course, the airlines always lie about this: Southwest Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights on Sunday and just over 800 on Saturday, wreaking havoc on weekend travel plans for thousands of passengers. gwb ... No crew, no fly!!

Anonymous said...

You might like these guys (even gwb might):https://babylonbee.com/

TSB said...

The Babylon Bee writes chillingly accurate exposes of tomorrow's news today.

Anonymous said...

TSB:My daugter's real esate agent was helping her get the Uhaul truck filled up all morning oday. (she and her boyfriend both are trying to recover from covid and are exhausted. He told her home prices have collapsed in Port Angeles and he is being inundated with military and Californians hoping to escape. gwb

Anonymous said...

TSB: https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/truckers-warn-federal-regulators-drug-testing-bottlenecks: The United Trucker Association says that truck drivers who randomly are required to immediately obtain drug tests are finding they are not available due to 1. A lack of plastic cups, 2. A shortage of qualified testers. 3. A lack of testing machines. If they can't be tested the drivers are reported as "NON-COMPLIANT' and their licenses are cancelled.
(Wy in the world would we need truck drivers? When my dad was a kid they were hauling groceries with horse drawn carts and there was no shortage of groceries. gwbs

TSB said...

GWB: Why would we need truckers? There was once - back in the 80s? - a TV show about truckers, and I still remember the theme song, which was by Merle Haggard. "The white line is the life line of a nation" it went.

The Ayn Rand followers have been expecting an Atlas Shrugged moment for many decades now, and it could just possibly be upon us at last, only by blue collar guys like truckers, while Rand's big-deal capitalist entreprenuers are on the government's side this time.

TSB said...

That theme song was Merle Haggard's "Moving On."

And then there's this one, my favorite trucker song. "Six Days on the Road": https://youtu.be/wHbGhEfnh2E

Anonymous said...

Here's one: https://youtu.be/7i36lmYiT-U
Sennacherib

Anonymous said...

TSB: Medical Report: The horse paste, zinc, vitamin D and ivuprofen worked.
gwb

TSB said...

Sennacherib: Trucker songs were once a staple of popular music. Was it the CB radio craze that caused them, or vice versa?

GWB: Did you prescribe that for yourself? I'm glad it worked!

Anonymous said...

TSB,
I got friend who used to run the China operation for Dell now he drives a truck. He did raise chickens in Luling for awhile ( he was known as Lord Leghorn, now he's Lord of the Lanes.
Gwb: thanks I think. I just had a weird medical experience but since I've babbled enough it must wait.
Sennacherib

Anonymous said...

TSB: My daughter got the protocol from the 'health ranger', I did all the praying. Today they found a brand new 60 hp 4wdrive tractor (2015) with a great snow plow that is street legal to tow logs and hay. It was made in Viet Nam but the parts are made in Texas. She says it's realy loud! gwb

Anonymous said...

TSB:Colin Powell, who wrote, or had written about 17 books about himself died at 84 of covid. He was fully vaccinatedd. Of all those titles, my favorites are: "Perfect soldier" and "IT WORKED FOR ME"! I never for 1 minute believed a word this guy did or said after his UN appearance. gwb.

TSB said...

GWB: I have small soft spot for Powell since he was a good resource manager at State, and he made sure we got the travel perks us little guys were entitled to by USG regulation when our bureau managers were denying them to us.

But he was certainly passive-aggressive, and he managed to keep on the good side of both the Bush / neocon wing of the Republicans and also the anti-Bush Democrats and later the anti-Trump forces all at the same time. Now there was a balancing act.

The press first reported COVID as the cause of death, then the WaPo adding blood cancer, and yesterday CNN added Parkinson's. Well, after all he was 84. RIP

Anonymous said...

TSB:https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-russia-europe-vladimir-putin-bcb1c48ff55f0b2276d3696baba2084c ... the virus is rippin and roarin in Russia and the latest world wide stats show that the more vaccinated people are the more cases, hospitalizations and blood clots you see. The least vaccinated counties in the US have very litle covid. That study was discussed last nite by Dr. Chris Martensen on you tube.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Houston of Oklahoma (who's wife had a devastating stroke 2 weeks after the vax flew to a Baptist Church in S. Florida where 2,000 fishing fans showed up to honor him and his wife. His neice got to lead the choir. Yesterday was my daughter's last day of work and everyone she works with was ordered not to "speak to that person" LOL! gwb

Anonymous said...

TSB: NIH Admits Funding Gain-Of-Function COVID Experiments; Gives EcoHealth Five Days To Report Data: This should make for some interesting discussions about Fauci and might finally get Gates' name mentioned in the news since he also funded the EHA.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/nih-admits-funding-gain-function-covid-experiments-gives-ecohealth-five-days-report gwb
Maybe we will get to listening to the scientists who long ago were banned from being heard on this subject?

Anonymous said...

TSB: Dr. Anthony Fauci Received Big Pay Increase To Prevent Pandemics:
It turns out the answer to the question, "Who can fire Fauci is the whole bureaucracy that has been rewarding him over the years and then rewarding him for developing deadly viruses to kill off Americans. gwb

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/dr-anthony-fauci-received-big-pay-increase-prevent-pandemics

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about. gwb tell your daughter she'll be glad she did what she did.
Sennacherib