In the recent case of Ruby v. Scherzer, http://opinions.kycourts.net/coa/2012-CA-001724.pdf (9/27/13), the Kentucky Court of Appeals held that the attorney lien statute, KRS 376.460, does not apply in marriage dissolution cases so as to give an attorney a right to place a lien for attorney’s fees on non-marital property that is assigned to his or her client or on marital property that is awarded to the client. The Court distinguished such property division in a dissolution case from recovery in a suit or claim against a third party. The Court stated that the lien statute was intended to give the plaintiff’s attorney the ability to put the payor of funds to the client as a result of litigation on notice of the attorney’s right to a fee, and that assignment and division of property in a dissolution did not amount to a recovery or award to which the statute was intended to apply.
Ruby v. Scherzer is not yet final but was designated for publication in the South Western Reporter. Cases that are not final may not be cited as authority in Kentucky courts.
David Kramer is a Northern Kentucky attorney practicing at Dressman Benzinger LaVelle psc.
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