BarkingDogs.net

The material on this page was contributed by Geordie Duckler, LLC - Attorney at Law,
in an interview conducted by the Barking Dogs Webmaster in May of 2006

Go to the index for the Geordie Duckler interview

On the Cost of Hiring an Attorney to Handle Your Barking Dog Court Case

Barking Dogs Webmaster:
Now, as I understand it, the term contingency refers to an agreement in which, rather than working for a fee, the attorney agrees to represent the client in exchange for a percentage of any money that might be awarded by the court, or paid out as part of a settlement. Is that correct?

Geordie Duckler:
Yes, that's right.

Barking Dogs Webmaster:
So does that mean that if the attorney loses the case, he will receive no compensation whatsoever for his efforts?

Geordie Duckler:
Yes, that's true too.

Barking Dogs Webmaster:
That being the case, is there any chance at all that a bark abuse victim will be able to find an attorney who will be willing to take his case on a contingency?

Geordie Duckler:
I used to do it. Back about five years ago I was taking barking cases on a contingency. You know, I'd think to myself, these people are so upset. They had great jobs and had everything going for them and now they're in trouble because of these dogs. Also, I think I can get the non-economic damages to be quite a bit. So I'll just take it on the chance that I'll make my money off of the settlement.

But only one or two of them ever really panned out that way, and mostly I was getting soaked. So I stopped doing that. I would think that any attorney with any real experience is not going to take the case on a contingency.

Barking Dogs Webmaster:
Okay then, how much money does a person really need to have to see something like this through?

Geordie Duckler:
Well, that kind of brings up a number of things about finances. If there is any possibility of a state statute that allows the client to have his attorney's fees paid by the opposition, then any self-respecting, reasonable attorney is going to protect their client by using that statute, obviously.

But one thing I can tell you is that if you hire me and we go through the steps and we win, then even though you had to bankroll it for a while, at the end, you'll get all that money back, and more.

If you, as an attorney, have assessed it to be a good case, and if the client has the initial funds, anyway, to finance the thing, then they don't have to take a financial hit for having run the case. They can actually recover everything and it will come out of the defendant's pockets. But, of course, that requires a statute that awards attorney's fees. Many states have such provisions. I know that California does. But many states don't. So that's something you just have to look at state by state.

Barking Dogs Webmaster:
Of course, obviously, that's something your attorney can tell you when you contact him.

Geordie Duckler:
The attorney will say, "Here, I've looked at the state statutes. And there's a statute that says that if you do XY and Z, you're going to get your fees back. Therefore, I'm going to be encouraging you." If there isn't such a statute, okay, then you have some other problems.

Although, here's another thing to keep in mind. Many of the nicer communities have homeowner's associations, or have what are called CCRs, covenants, conditions and restrictions. Very often, in there, they'll have a private attorney's fees provision that says that if one neighbor does something horrible to another neighbor, everyone agrees that by joining this community and signing these CCRs, that the prevailing party gets to have their attorney's fees covered by the other party.

That's the private route I was telling you about. So that even if the state statute doesn't give you fees, keep an eye out for the fact that you might be in a community in which a private agreement, signed by everyone in advance at the time of moving in, does give you attorney's fees.

I've had a couple like that, and they're even better really, because they don't have a limit or a cap on it. So you can sue for whatever you want, and you'll be likely to get it, as long as you prevail.

Barking Dogs Webmaster:
That's great information.

Geordie Duckler:
That is helpful to know. Now here's a good caveat to it, so keep this in mind. This applies to both the state statute and the private CC&R. Attorney's fees provisions are not always unilateral. Sometimes they are mutual. So it is very specific as to how they are worded. Sometimes they say, "If the offending party brings a suit and wins, they get their fees back." That's great, because that means that if you bring the suit and you go through the whole thing and you win, you get you fees back. But if you lose, you don't get your fees back.

But sometimes the provisions relating to attorney's fees are mutual. So they say, "The prevailing party gets their fees. That means that if you go through all the steps of suing the bad guys, and you lose, it isn't just that you've lost your lawsuit and now you have to pay your attorney, you also then have to pay the other side's attorney fees. And that could be incredibly expensive.

Barking Dogs Webmaster:
Oh, yeah.

Geordie Duckler:
So you have to be aware if the attorney's fee provision is mutual or unilateral, because then you have to make a big decision as to whether you are going to go forward or not, because the risk is much, much higher. You don't want to be on the hook for two lawyer's fees.

If you are dealing with a unilateral type of provision, it is better to go forward because the poor defendant, the dog owner, will eventually get the advice that they could be on the hook for two attorney's fees, and it makes them much more amenable to settlement.

The barking dog owner, as well as the offended party should both care about provisions governing attorney's fees, because they are hammers that will come down on the head of one or the other person, to make them solve the problem.

Yelling, letter writing, animal control citations and such things don't really change people's behavior. But the way our country works, the dollar sign often has a very large effect on people's behavior. And the more expensive something becomes, the more likely someone is to change their behavior to reduce the expense.

So they think, I'm a good dog owner, and my dogs don't bark, so everything's fine. But if there's a risk that they will pay a large price for that if they're wrong, they are much more likely to be willing to pay a smaller price to resolve the problem. So attorney's fee provision are, I think, a good reflection of the fact that you can use financial matters to leverage solutions.

In a sense, it isn't that I'm going to win a large case against you, it's that, even if I only win a single dollar - if all I do is simply prove that your dogs barked - and the jury didn't really think that it was all that big of a deal, you know. Say they only award me ten bucks for the fact that I lost one night's sleep. Okay, but then when my attorney submits his ten thousand dollar bill to you, and you have to pay that as well, that's going to be a much bigger hit than the award you might have gotten if your case was weak. So I think that's important.

Barking Dogs Webmaster:
Yes, it sounds very important. Well, let me ask this question, then. With the best case in the world and the best attorney in the world, you can still lose.

Geordie Duckler:
Oh yeah, there's no question about it.

Barking Dogs Webmaster:
So then, how much should a person be able to afford to lose. For example, if I'm going to go into this knowing that there is always a chance I could lose, you know, I don't want to spend the money that was supposed to go for my mom's lifesaving surgery. With that in mind, how much money do you need to be able to afford to lose before you can afford go into something like this?

Geordie Duckler:
That's really hard to say, because it can vary so much from case to case.

Barking Dogs Webmaster:
One thing that seems clear to me is that if you don't have several thousand dollars that you can afford to lose, then you probably shouldn't be proceeding with a lawsuit. That's safe to say, isn't it?

Geordie Duckler:
Yes, that is safe to say.

Barking Dogs Webmaster:
So then, it's just a question of how many thousands you need to be able to afford to lose before you proceed with a lawsuit.

Geordie Duckler:
In terms of an hourly rate, I guess that it would cost you something in the neighborhood of eight thousand dollars.

Barking Dogs Webmaster:
Now, how about if you were just after an injunction? How much should a person figure on spending for that?

Geordie Duckler:
At two hundred dollars an hour, in my experience it is usually slightly above one thousand dollars to get from the first step (assessing the client's gripe) to the last step (the ruling at the end of the injunction hearing).

Barking Dogs Webmaster:
So then, in terms of a round-figured estimation, it would likely add up to something around eight thousand bucks to sue for damages and one thousand big ones just to get the barking stopped by way of an injunction.

Geordie Duckler:
That's what I would think. Now, the eight-thousand dollar figure to follow through with a lawsuit is somewhere near the high end. However, knowing that attorney's rates fees vary, and knowing that there is often an attorney you can find who might take it on a contingency, and knowing that there are court expenses on top of the fees, taking all of those things into account, and knowing that 90% of all cases settle - I mean, it's very rare that you go to court in any case, including a nuisance case. Usually what happens is that, eventually, during the course of things, someone offers someone some money or a solution, and then it settles.

But you have to remember that even though it might be eight thousand to get into the courtroom for trial, you may still be able to solve your problem for only half that amount of money, because halfway through the process you may find that the dog owner wants to settle.

Knowing all those factors, and assuming that you do not win a judgment and you don't have to pay the defendant's legal fees, I would think that you should plan on it costing you something between five and nine thousand dollars. But it could very well be lower too.

There are some cases in which, at two hundred bucks an hour, I do my initial hour-long interview, my initial investigation, and I file the complaint. But instead of an answer to the complaint, I get a lawyer calling, saying, "We can fix this, and here's our offer."

That means that, with four or five hours of effort, which amounts to less than a thousand dollars that the client has spent, they have the solution, it's all in place and the whole thing is over with.

That has certainly happened before too, so I don't want anyone to think that you have to have money to win and you have to have money just to hire a lawyer, because sometimes, you don't. But, of course, you should have your eyes open and know that it could get expensive.

Go to the index for the Geordie Duckler interview

This page from the Duckler Interview is part of Section Three:
the Law section of barkingdogs.net