It really is comedy gold.
But before we laugh too much, consider just how much of UL's time and money Ryan is wasting on this fishing expedition. Not so funny if you're over there.
Likewise let's ask ourselves why the three Indianapolis solicitors are wasting their time on such a frivilous claim. With due respect to Lash, lawyers don't tend to work for nowt. So do they work on a "no win, no fee" basis expecting a settlement (heaven forbid) or is some daft eejit paying them?
[sigh]
Oh, I hear you on the waste of time, money and resources that it is costing UL to defend against Ryan's claim. It is not funny at all.
Unfortunately, people bring frivolous lawsuits against defendants with "deep pockets" every day, in hopes that the deep pocketed defendant will toss them some money as a "nuisance" settlement - i.e., it is more economical to toss them a small amount of money to go away than it is to spend a much greater amount of money defending the claim, as frivolous as it may be - especially when the plaintiff is essentially "judgment proof" in the sense that he has not sufficient assets to satisfy an eventual judgment for costs, etc.
As far as these particular lawyers are concerned in this particular case, I have no idea whether they are acting on a contingency fee basis or not, but it is pretty common in the U.S. to do so. (It is not nearly so common in Canada, and until a few years ago, it was not even legal in Canada for lawyers to do so.)
The contingency fee arrangment is the "no win, no fee" scenario that you mentioned. I.e., if the plaintiff obtains a settlement or a judgment in his favour, the lawyers get a specified percentage of same - plus their disbursements and such - before the plaintiff sees a dime of any settlement or judgment).
That said, Kevin Ryan has been panhandling for donations since he launched his lawsuit (which seeks
only monetary damages for himself personally, don't forget, and which seeks no declaratory relief of any kind whatsoever relating to the events of 9/11), ostensibly to help with his legal fees, (he calls it a "defence fund" even though he's the plaintiff). This would lead donors to believe that he is required to pay his lawyers, and would suggest that they are not acting on a contingency fee basis. However, the "defence fund" site that I read back when he started his panhandling did not set out any details whatsoever about the arrangements he had with his lawyers, did not say that he had any specific financial commitment to meet, did not have any oversight whatsoever, did not even link to his complaint, did not have any mechanism for accounting for donations, did not have any mechanism for ensuring that donations received would go to the purpose alleged, did not have any checks and balances in place, did not have anything at all in place to assure donors that money donated to Kevin Ryan would go to funding his lawsuit any more than it would go to funding his grocery bill, his hydro bill, or his bar tab at his local pub.
More re: the lawyers.
jaydeehess posted something to the effect that these particular lawyers were all extremely liberal politically and into what he described as "Big Brother" cases in which they acted against corporations or government agencies, on behalf of "the little guy" and he posted some links in support of his assessement in the other thread. I have not done any research whatsoever into the proclivities of these particular lawyers because my interest is in the lawsuit rather than the laywers, but since you raised the point about why lawyers might do this without being paid, I thought I should mention this. The previous thread is here for anyone who wants to check out the
links that jaydeehess provided and research them further.