Alaska Employment Law

Federal Tort Claims Act: U. S. District Judge Ralph Beistline has denied the government’s motion for reconsideration in Bolt v. U.S., the slip and fall case at Ft. Wainwright reported here earlier.  The government had argued Beistline was not bound by portions of an earlier 9th Circuit opinion.  Beistline rejected exceptions to the law-of-the-case doctrine based on dicta and variation of trial testimony from evidence before the appellate court. 

Contingency attorney fee contracts:  An Anchorage law firm, mid-litigation, agreed to lower its contingency fees if the clients extended a policy limits offer and the defendant accepted it “without further substantial litigation.”  The defendant eventually accepted such an offer, but only after mediation, and other out-of-court efforts by the firm.  The clients contended that only in-court activity would disqualify them from the lower fee. 

The Supreme Court this Friday morning unanimously affirmed Superior Court Jack Smith’s summary judgment for the law firm, holding: a) the firm didn’t violate Professional Rule 1.5(c) by failing to have a single, integrated document that contained the modified fee agreement (instead, the parties exchanged numerous e-mails, and the absence of an integrated document resulted in no prejudice); b) the modification didn’t violate the “fee-conversion” rule set out in Compton v. Kittleson, 171 P.3d 172 (Alaska  2007), because the reversion to the original (higher) fee structure wasn’t in the firm’s control; and c) “further substantial litigation” includes out-of-court work, agreeing with the trial judge that “court proceedings are more like an iceberg: 90 percent of the activity involved in litigation is not in court, but in preparing the case for the various court filings and proceedings, including trial.”  Clients with business acumen (as here) would understand such, the court said.

Weiner v. Burr, Pease & Kurtz, P.C., Op. No. 6433 (Alaska Nov. 13, 2009) 

Charles Tulin represented the ex-clients; Richard Helm of Bookman & Helm, also of Anchorage, represented the law firm.