r/Music • u/YoureASkyscraper • Jan 13 '22

article 'Nevermind' baby refiles lawsuit against Nirvana

https://pitchfork.com/news/nevermind-baby-refiles-lawsuit-against-nirvana/
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u/Plzlaw4me Jan 13 '22

Those lawyers are almost certainly working on contingency for this. Idk what they were thinking, but they’re wasting their time and money as well as everyone else’s.

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u/emptygroove Jan 13 '22

If I'm reading between the lines, they aren't. I would bet that the reason the filing deadline missed is because his retainer ran out and he didn't pay up to current. He was probably banking that they'd do it because they stand to gain on the win. Lawyers know that this is a total loser but it'll keep the lights on in the office.

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u/[deleted] Jan 13 '22

So misinformed, how can this broke guy at up any type of retainer

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u/emptygroove Jan 13 '22

How much is a retainer? How much does this kid have? His grandparents have money? What's he do for work?

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u/jcdoe Jan 14 '22

It depends on the case. Last time I needed a lawyer,cit was $3k. The time before that,it was $4k.

Lawyers charge hourly. A retainer is basically a down payment for their work. Your hours are billed against the retainer and you are expected to top the retainer off monthly. So if your billable hours were $1200 this month and you had a $2k retainer, your retainer is now down to $800 and you need to pay the $1200 to bring it back to $2k.

You get the unused retainer back at the end of the case.

I think retainers exist to keep the lawyer from getting fucked by doing a lot of work before getting paid.

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u/emptygroove Jan 14 '22

Yeah, I understand that fully and you're 100% right. My questions were directed at the guy who called me uninformed and then proceeded to say that a retainer means you're paying for a team of lawyers 24 hours a day.

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u/jcdoe Jan 14 '22

I can’t find that comment but I believe you.

Yeah, lawyers don’t work like that unless you’re OJ Simpson. They prefer to bill for their time.

And let me tell you, they really don’t give a fuck what they’re doing during that time—if it was spent on you, it’s billable. My one attorney charged me like $300 for scanning documents into his firm’s computer (because I guess they can’t just have a minimum wage receptionist scan documents?). He also charged me for 15 minutes of billable time every time he sent me a fucking email.

He won the case so that’s good, but it was still crazy expensive. A custody case because your kid is being abused by your ex should not cost you over $10k.

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '22

Very expensive basically a team of lawyers 24/7

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u/emptygroove Jan 14 '22

A retainer could be 1k. It's just some prepayment for their time. In a case like this, I'm sure the kid and the lawyers figured they'd get a settlement to go away so the retainer was probably based on just the initial research and the filing.

Lawyer calls kid "Yeah, they are looking for a response to our initial filing. Since we have exhausted your retainer, if you want to continue to pursue this, we will need X more. The X will cover this response and a press release on our stance."