In the age of tort reform, Texas plaintiffs attorneys are used to turning away clients whose suits cost more to litigate than can ever be recovered at trial. So why would a lawyer accept a case in which a client sought $77.55 — an amount of money that might pay for 15 minutes of an attorney’s time?
Partner James Holmes of Henderson, Texas’ Wellborn Houston says he proudly accepted such a case in 1997. And years later, he and his East Texas firm ended up paying $25,000 in trial costs and legal fees out of their own pockets to recover that $77.55 for their client. The firm did not charge the client anything for the additional representation.
Holmes explains that, by representing Robbie L. Linton, he was making good on a promise his firm made nearly two decades earlier. On Jan. 29, Linton, a former oil field worker injured on the job 20 years earlier, won a verdict for $77.55 — the cost of two prescriptions an insurance carrier refused to cover.
“This is the funniest tragic thing I’ve ever seen,” Holmes says.
In the age of tort reform, Texas plaintiffs attorneys are used to turning away clients whose suits cost more to litigate than can ever be recovered at trial. So why would a lawyer accept a case in which a client sought $77.55 — an amount of money that might pay for 15 minutes of an attorney’s time?
Partner James Holmes of Henderson, Texas’ Wellborn Houston says he proudly accepted such a case in 1997. And years later, he and his East Texas firm ended up paying $25,000 in trial costs and legal fees out of their own pockets to recover that $77.55 for their client. The firm did not charge the client anything for the additional representation.
Holmes explains that, by representing Robbie L. Linton, he was making good on a promise his firm made nearly two decades earlier. On Jan. 29, Linton, a former oil field worker injured on the job 20 years earlier, won a verdict for $77.55 — the cost of two prescriptions an insurance carrier refused to cover.
“This is the funniest tragic thing I’ve ever seen,” Holmes says.
In the age of tort reform, Texas plaintiffs attorneys are used to turning away clients whose suits cost more to litigate than can ever be recovered at trial. So why would a lawyer accept a case in which a client sought $77.55 — an amount of money that might pay for 15 minutes of an attorney’s time?
Partner James Holmes of Henderson, Texas’ Wellborn Houston says he proudly accepted such a case in 1997. And years later, he and his East Texas firm ended up paying $25,000 in trial costs and legal fees out of their own pockets to recover that $77.55 for their client. The firm did not charge the client anything for the additional representation.
Holmes explains that, by representing Robbie L. Linton, he was making good on a promise his firm made nearly two decades earlier. On Jan. 29, Linton, a former oil field worker injured on the job 20 years earlier, won a verdict for $77.55 — the cost of two prescriptions an insurance carrier refused to cover.
“This is the funniest tragic thing I’ve ever seen,” Holmes says.
Join the conversation!