Why people hate lawyers (OM NOM NOM)*

Matter of Manufacturers & Traders Trust Co., 2012 NY Slip Op 01297 [4th Dept 2012] [available here]

If the principal beneficiary** of a trust dies, the trustee will petition the Surrogates Court to wind up the trust and distribute whatever money is left to the remainder beneficiaries*** of the trust. In this case, one of the remainder beneficiaries (apparently) was unable, by reason of age or incapacity, to advocate for himself. So the Surrogates Court appointed a law guardian (or guardian ad litem if you want to be all fancy and Latin about it) to make sure the interests of the remainder beneficiary were well represented before the Court.

At the end of the day, the remainder beneficiary was awarded $3,179. Not too shabby. The Law Guardian then asked the Court to pay his legal fee for services rendered to secure his client the $3,000 pay day. The fee? A cool $12,000, or almost four times what his client received as a result of his efforts.

The Fourth Department vacated the attorney's fees award, noting that a law guardian is only entitled to a "reasonable fee," and the reasonableness of the fee must be determined by the time spent on the matter, the complexity of the issues involved, and "the results obtained." The Law Guardian's application for fees simply alleged that he spent "42 hours on the matter," without specifying his hourly rate or otherwise justifying his fee.

Only a lawyer would think a $12,000 fee was reasonable when the client walks away with $3,000.****

*The sound the Cookie Monster makes when demolishing cookies. Used here to denote unchecked avarice in a context not involving baked goods and puppets.
** The principal beneficiary is the person the trust is set up to benefit. This person usually draws an income from the trust while he or she is alive.
*** There is typically money left in trust when the principal beneficiary dies. The person who set up the trust in the first place usually designates a person or persons (or a cat shelter, or whatever) to receive what is left when the trust ceases to fulfill its purpose and is dissolved.
**** I know, a bad result does not necessarily reflect on the effort expended. But. Come on.