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S.D. Codified Laws § 16-18-21

Attorney's lien on proceeds of action

Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case Production Credit Ass'n of the Midlands v. Wynne (1991)

Most recently applied in Karras v. Alpha Corp. (March 1995)

Source: PolC 1877, ch 18, § 9; CL 1887, § 470; RPolC 1903, § 702; RC 1919, § 5266; SDC 1939 & Supp 1960, § 32.1205; SL 1983, ch 157, § 3.

How often courts cite this section

19831990199510
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

An attorney and counselor at law has a lien for a general balance of compensation in and for each case upon:

(1) Any paper belonging to his client which has come into his hands in the course of his professional employment in the case for which the lien is claimed;

(2) Money in his hands belonging to his client in the case;

(3) Money due his client in the hands of the adverse party or attorney of such party, in an action or proceeding in which the attorney claiming the lien was employed, from the time of giving notice in writing to such adverse party or attorney of such party, if the money is in the possession or under the control of such attorney, which notice shall state the amount claimed and in general terms for what services; after judgment in any court of record such notice may be given and the lien made effective against the judgment debtor by entering it in the judgment docket.

Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.