Client Must Pay Lawyer $22,000 After Rejecting Insurance Settlement

A Tel Aviv District Court judge has ordered Eyal Shabtai to pay his former lawyer, Ron Taller, an additional 80,000 shekels (approximately $22,000) in legal fees. This ruling stems from Shabtai's rejection of a settlement offer from the insurance company Clal in a case where Taller represented him. The total amount Shabtai will now pay Taller is 455,000 shekels, a fraction of the 1.85 million shekels he has received in compensation.

Shabtai hired Taller in 2015 to pursue a claim for loss of work capacity, agreeing to pay Taller 20% of any recovered sum, capped at 390,000 shekels. A lower court awarded Shabtai 1 million shekels for past damages and recommended similar future compensation, which amounts to about 13,000 shekels monthly. Shabtai appealed this decision, but withdrew it on the District Court's advice.

However, Shabtai refused to pay Taller the full agreed-upon fee, leading Taller to sue for 390,000 shekels. Shabtai countersued for 1 million shekels, alleging Taller's negligence led to the partial success of his claim. The lower court awarded Taller 220,000 shekels in fees plus 75,000 shekels in expenses.

Both parties appealed. District Court Judge Einat Ravid dismissed Shabtai's negligence claims, stating they were based on challenging the lower court's factual findings. She partially accepted Taller's appeal, ruling he was entitled to fees based on the difference between the settlement offer and the amount awarded, as stipulated in their agreement. Taller claimed the insurer offered 1.75 million shekels, though formal documents showed 1.4 million shekels. Shabtai's rejection of this offer, Judge Ravid noted, cost him an additional 400,000 shekels in past damages.

Judge Ravid also unusually intervened in the expenses awarded to Taller by the lower court, granting him an additional 20,000 shekels in fees for that stage. Consequently, Shabtai was ordered to pay Taller the 80,000 shekels in additional fees (20% of the difference between the settlement offer and the awarded sum), 10,000 shekels for representation before a medical committee, 20,000 shekels in lower court fees, and 50,000 shekels in district court fees. Judges Naftali Shila and Yechiel Eliyahu concurred with Ravid's decision.