Martha Nell, in an April 22, 2013 post in the ABA Journal, summarizes an interesting report from Florida’s Sun-Sentinel. Here is what she had to say on how attorneys are responding to noncash alternatives for payment of owed fees/expenses.
Attorneys told the Florida newspaper they’ve taken cars (including a Rolls Royce and a Mini Cooper), Yorkies, fish bait and lasagna in exchange for legal services.
Little Tootie, Yorkie. Portraitlady4306. Wikimedia Commons.
More dubious offers included the man charged with posing as an attorney who offered to work as a paralegal and a man accused of illegally dealing in firearms who was willing to provide an army tank. "I think he was serious, but I didn’t take the case and I didn’t take the tank," said attorney Eric Schwartzreich of Ft. Lauderdale. "I didn’t know where to park it; I didn’t think it would fit in my garage."
Another Fort Lauderdale defense attorney, Jason Kreiss, rejected an offer of a herd of cattle in Venezuela.
And Fred Schwartz of Boca Raton, who did accept a 1977 Rolls Royce from a client who works as a fortune teller, drew the line at a client who tried more than 20 years ago to persuade his legal counsel to accept a rundown Art Deco hotel instead of the $400,000 he owed. The firm held out for cash and got $300,000, Schwartz tells the Sun-Sentinel. The hotel later sold for $5 million.
