Paraplegic Ferry Victim OK with Paying Lawyer $2.5M in Additional Fees
A former fish market worker who was paralyzed in the 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash really liked his lawyer—and doesn’t mind giving him an extra $2.5 million.
Testifying Wednesday, James McMillan told a federal magistrate in Brooklyn that he doesn’t support a judge’s ruling reducing his lawyer’s cut from one-third of his personal injury award to 20 percent, the New York Daily News reports.
McMillan’s lawyer, Evan Torgan, had counseled his client to go to trial rather than accept a $10 million settlement offer. McMillan ended up with an award of $18 million. U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein then cut the fee, saying it was unfair because the case had a strong likelihood of a substantial award. The judge also noted that McMillan was in the hospital when he signed the contingency fee agreement with Torgan.
But McMillan said he’d like Weinstein to know that he’s satisfied, according to the Daily News account.
“There’s a hundred lawyers on TV saying, ‘I’m the best,’ but this man has walked with me through many things people wouldn’t understand. He said, ‘James I’m your lawyer,’ and I needed that comfort.”
“I don’t need that extra,” McMillan testified. “I want him to have it. He worked for it.”
