Ouroboros: The Self-Devouring Snake
Apparently it’s the lien time of year with back-to-back posts about attorneys’ liens in Minnesota.
Christensen Law Office, PLLC v. Olean is a classic scenario. Debtor/Client hires Law Firm to fight several (3) law suits arising out of his default on promissory notes and… guess what? The Debtor/Client did not differentiate between not paying the underlying debt and not paying the Law Firm. Go figure. Who could have predicted that?
To be fair to the client, his view appears to have been that he sought to hire Carl Christensen, a lawyer with extensive experience in debtor’s remedies, but his files were, according to the Debtor/Client, handled by an inexperienced and inferior lawyer.
It sees that Pine County District Court Judge James T. Reuter’s sympathies were with the Christensen Law Firm (or, if not his sympathies, which is presumptuous on my part, Judge Reuter at least thought the law strongly favored the law firm). But this week the Minnesota Court of Appeals dialed back some of the trial court’s largesse to the law firm.
Olean appears to have taken on the law firm in the appeal “pro se,” he knocked off $12,520.61 of the lien, and he narrowed its reach (that is, what property the lien would attach to). And Christensen’s long hard siege to collect its fees and costs of $25,352.57 moves ahead…