Court rules in favor of California firm

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

A dispute between Lincoln and Los Angeles law firms that successfully represented a woman in a multimillion dollar product liability lawsuit was decided Friday in favor of the California outfit.

The Nebraska Supreme Court decided the fee agreement between the LA firm, Law Offices of Michael J. Piuze,  and McCord and Burns Law Firm of Lincoln did not include appeals work.

Michael Piuze and Dan McCord represented Penny Shipler, then of Lincoln, in a product liability lawsuit against General Motors.

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Penny Shipler

Penny Shipler

Shipler was paralyzed from the neck down after the Chevrolet SUV in which she was a passenger rolled near U.S. 34 and Northwest 27th Street in September 1997. Shipler was 30 at the time.

A Lancaster County District Court jury awarded her $19.6 million in 2003. The trial judge reduced the award to $18.6 million, and the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld that amount in 2006.

Shipler and GM reached a settlement a few weeks later in which she agreed to a confidential sum. In exchange, GM withdrew its motion for the Supreme Court to rehear the case and agreed to not pursue other appellate options.

An agreement signed by McCord in 2000 stated he would get 25 percent of the attorneys’ fees.

He argued later that his firm should have received 25 percent of the fees from trial and appellate work. Piuze countered that McCord was due only a quarter of the fees for the trial portion of the lawsuit.

The Nebraska Supreme Court agreed with Piuze Friday, noting that the April 2000 agreement on the division of fees stated, “‘Neither my (Piuze) retainer agreement with ... Shipler nor this agreement pertains to fees for an appeal or retrial, if they become necessary.’”