Attorney v. Client Fee Disputes
The State Bar of Nevada Fee Dispute Committee offers a free mediation and arbitration service to handle fee disputes between clients and attorneys. Because this service is free and is set up to allow individuals to represent themselves we refer most callers with complaints about attorney fees to the State Bar. We urge you to visit their website at http://www.nvbar.org/ or http://www.nvbar.org/feedispute.htm if you have a fee dispute with a Nevada attorney. However, there have been some complaints about how long this process can take.
If you have a fee dispute with an attorney and we feel your case has merit and you will pay us an hourly rate and will give us an upfront retainer fee, we will represent you. We do not take such cases on a contingency fee basis. In the past year we have taken two such cases. In one case an attorney attempted to put an attorney's lien on real estate that was the subject of litigation. We successfully asked the judge to refer the fee dispute to the State Bar Fee Dispute Committee. The judge agreed, although once the case was in court the judge had discretion to decide the fee dispute.
In another case the attorney sued his client for more than $40,000 for fees allegedly owed. We agreed to defend the client. In this case both sides agreed to binding arbitration before the the State Bar Fee Dispute Committee and the client decided to have us continue to represent him in that arbitration. After the arbitration was delayed once and then set for hearing, the case settled for a large discount to the amount of fees sued upon.
Contact Information:
Reed & Mansfield
6655 W. Sahara Ave., Suite B-200
Las Vegas, NV 89146
Phone: 702-343-0494
regular business hours: 9am-5pm (Pacific Coast time) M-F
most days: We will also take your call between
7am-9pm including weekends and holidays
(c) by Jonathan C. Reed