Sunday, March 14, 2010

Charging Lien Not Proper Prior To Entry Of Judgment

In Walia v. Hodgson Russ LLP (4D09-457), the Fourth District reversed the imposition of a charging lien.  A charging lien:
[t]he charging lien is an equitable right to have costs and fees due an attorney for services in the suit secured to him in the judgment or recovery in that particular suit. It is not enough to support the imposition of a charging lien that an attorney has provided his services; the services must, in addition, produce a positive judgment or settlement for the client, since the lien will attach only to the tangible fruits of the services.
Rudd v. Rudd, 960 So. 2d 885, 887 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007)...
An essential prerequisite to imposition of a charging lien is that the underlying litigation produces a positive judgment or settlement – in other words, some “tangible fruits of the attorney’s service” for the benefit of the client...If the litigation produces no judgment of monetary value for the client, the court may not impose a charging lien for the attorney’s benefit.
Because a judgment had not been entered, the charging lien was not proper.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

If a judgement has been entered but is under appeal and has not yet been ruled on by the appelate court, can a charging lien be filed. Doesn't the appeal make the judgement ineffective until the appleate court rules.

Post a Comment