Amjadi

FACTS

Plaintiff sued defendant (& two other people, not parties to this appeal) for damages arising from injuries she sustained in an automobile accident. The matter was set for jury trial in July of 2019. The week before trial, plaintiff fired her attorneys and the trial date was vacated. Plaintiff hired new attorneys (Kevin Jolly & Leah Berry of Jolly Berry Law and Joseph Nazarian from Accident Lawyers Firm) and her trial was reset for January 2020. The contingent fee agreement between plaintiff and the Jolly Berry firm included this language, which has now given rise to the present appeal: “CLIENT agrees that if a settlement offer is tendered in the case by any defendants and the ATTORNEY believes in good faith that the settlement offer is reasonable, and that acceptance of the offer is in the CLIENT’s best interest, and should be accepted, CLIENT authorizes ATTORNEY to accept said offer on CLIENT’s behalf, at ATTORNEY’s sole discretion.”

2 In the days before trial, plaintiff’s relationship with her new attorneys soured, in part over a disagreement about whether to ask for a further continuance of trial. One of plaintiff’s attorneys e-mailed plaintiff the night before trial…