Can an attorney recover a common fund from the proceeds of a lawsuit?

In Mitchell v. Huntsville Hospital, supra, 598 So.2d 1358, 1361, the court held that an attorney could not recover a fee from the proceeds of a lawsuit that were paid to the hospital by the injured patient's medical insurer as a result of the attorney's efforts. There was no statutory authority for such recovery, and the common fund theory was inapplicable because the attorney had acted on behalf of the client with whom the hospital was in an adversarial relationship. The

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