Around New England

Lawyers To Get 40% of Sex Abuse Settlement With State

May 25, 2018

A New Hampshire judge set aside state guidelines to allow lawyers who represented two girls who suffered horrific sex abuse while under the care of the state’s social-services agency to get 40 percent of the settlement instead of the recommended 25 percent.

The judge found that the lawyers took on a high-risk case and earned essentially no money from it for four years and did an outstanding job with it, meriting a 40 percent contingency-fee payout worth $2.7 million,  according to The Union Leader.

The girls’ parents engaged in “unspeakable abuse” against the girls, according to state officials, during a time when the parents had partial visitation rights and a representative of the state’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families wasn’t present, according to The Union Leader.

The lawyers first had to win the right to sue the state agency, which was a tall task, and then had to negotiate the settlement.

The grandparents of the girls, who have adopted them, support the settlement. The parents are service 25 years to life.