Ferris, Thompson and Zweig, Ltd. v. Esposito

This case presents question as to whether trial court had jurisdiction to determine merits of plaintiff’s lawsuit alleging that defendant breached attorney fee-splitting agreement by failing to pay plaintiff percentage of attorney fees defendant recovered in two workers’ compensation cases that plaintiff had referred to defendant. While defendant argued that instant lawsuit could only be resolved by Workers’ Compensation Commission, Appellate Court found that although Commission had authority to set amount of attorney fees in worker compensation cases, such authority did not extend to dispute regarding alleged breach of fee referral agreement with respect to said cases. As such, trial court had jurisdiction to resolve plaintiff's case.