Lawyer Sues Own Client For More Money After Receiving $18M In Fees

A New York lawyer sued his former client last month and asked to be compensated with several million dollars in legal fees even after he was already paid $18 million for his past services.

Personal injury attorney Benedict Morelli claimed he was entitled to an additional $5.5 million in legal fees on top of what he already received from his ex-client, Mark Perez, The New York Post reported, citing filings in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Perez, of Long Island, received a $102 million jury verdict in 2019 after he sued Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. six years earlier.

The now-38-year-old suffered a broken skull and needed multiple brain surgeries after a forklift crashed into a 10-foot-tall booth he was working on and caused him to plummet at the Jones Beach Marine Theater.

He lost his long-term relationship and was left needing full-time care following the incident, Morelli said after the verdict.

Perez and Morelli reportedly agreed that the latter would get one-third of the award as a contingency fee. However, the lawyer repeatedly tried to negotiate an additional 10% fee when the verdict went to appeal, while Perez sought to pay an hourly rate.

Morelli kept working on the case despite Perez allegedly never signing an agreement over the additional fee, and he later secured a $55 million settlement with Live Nation's insurers outside of the appeal court.

However, Perez only received roughly $28 million from the settlement, with $5.5 million still being withheld in an escrow account as he fights for its return in addition to all of the fees he paid Morelli.

"I think that lawyers should be paid well for their work, a person like me needs them to fight for them but for Mr. Morelli to take away so much of the settlement, it just seems wrong," Perez wrote to the judge that oversaw his personal injury trial.

Perez claimed in his countersuit that, between him and Morelli, he was "the one that lives with seizures, surgeries and constant fear of more medical problems" and that Morelli's actions demonstrated that the lawyer's "greed knows no bounds."

Perez also claimed that Morelli did not inform him about several prior settlement offers post trial.

Additionally, Perez said his former lawyer put him in the middle of a fee dispute with his first lawyer, a distant relative, which caused a rift in his family.

Morelli asked a judge Thursday to dismiss Perez's counterclaims against him and argued that he never agreed to his former client's proposed hourly rate for the appeal work.

The lawyer also said that Perez "chose to remain silent" about the extra 10% fee until the case had wrapped and the settlement was secured.

"Mr. Perez accepted the benefits of the firm’s work with respect to the appeal, did not terminate the firm, and did not ask the firm to stop working on the matter. He chose to remain silent while the firm completed the appeal and thereby ratified the 10% fee agreement," Morelli's lawyers said.