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DALLAS – Three wrongly convicted Texas men have reached a settlement with trial lawyer Kevin Glasheen in a dispute over attorney fees for the legal work that more than tripled the compensation the men received from the state and greatly improved benefits for future Texas exonerees.

The agreements between Mr. Glasheen and exonerees Steven Phillips, Patrick Waller and James Giles were reached in mediation on Nov. 10, 2011, resolving a case pending in Judge Ken Molberg’s 95^th District Court in Dallas County. The settlement resolves lawsuits that challenged the standard contingent-fee contracts the men signed when they hired Lubbock-based Glasheen Valles & Inderman in an attempt to gain additional compensation from the state.

“It is important to me that we have happy clients who are satisfied with our fees,” Mr. Glasheen says. “I’m proud of the success we’ve achieved for wrongly convicted Texans, and I’m glad that we were able to reach a mutually beneficial agreement in these cases. Our efforts ultimately led to a change in the law and allowed us to provide these men with the compensation they deserve.”

Because of the legal team’s aggressive strategy against the City of Dallas and other parties, Texas lawmakers agreed to help revise compensation statutes and provide greater benefits to the wrongly convicted. A series of changes enacted by Texas lawmakers more than tripled compensation for exonerees and significantly improved the benefits they receive for health, education and other areas.

Thanks to changes implemented in the 2009 and 2011 sessions of the Texas Legislature, most exonerees no longer need extensive legal representation to collect fair compensation, which was not the case when Mr. Glasheen was hired.

In a partial summary judgment earlier this year, Judge Molberg ruled that the contingent-fee agreement allowed him to recover attorney’s fees, and that the lobbying work performed by Mr. Glasheen and his firm was proper.

With offices in Lubbock, El Paso and Odessa, Glasheen Valles & Inderman represents clients in courtrooms across the southwest including cases involving catastrophic injuries from automobile accidents, oil field accidents, truck wrecks and work injuries. For more information, visit http://www.glasheenlaw.com/.

For more information about this case, please contact Kevin Glasheen at kevin7@glasheenlaw.com or 806-789-0734.