Tacoma teacher’s discrimination case settled for $3K. She claims attorney defrauded her
A teacher whose discrimination lawsuit against Tacoma Public Schools was settled for $3,000 is now suing the former Pierce County Superior Court judge who represented her, alleging fraud and breach of contract.
Betty Williams, a Black woman over 70, had accused TPS of passing her over for a job because of her age, race and sex. Williams claimed in a lawsuit filed this week that her attorney in that matter, Beverly Grant, and Grant’s law firm wrongfully took money from her.
The crux of the dispute is that Grant allegedly agreed she would receive 40% of money recovered in the civil case or otherwise take no attorney fees if the case didn’t result in a monetary win or settlement, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in Pierce County Superior Court and a contingency-fee agreement attached in the complaint.
There was no hourly attorney fee to Grant under the contract, the complaint said.
Williams put $10,000 in a trust to be applied toward costs of representation as they were incurred, including items such as office supplies, court filing fees and deposition costs, according to the contingency-fee agreement. Grant is accused of converting the $10,000 in trust-fund money into hourly attorney fees and requiring Williams to consent to the charges.
Grant, who represented Williams between 2021 and 2024, was prohibited from seeking her client’s consent on such an action, allegedly because it was fraudulent and in conflict with the client’s interest, the complaint said, adding that consent was void and unenforceable.
In an August note in regard to an invoice — both of which were attached in the complaint — Grant informed Williams that she had put 66 hours equaling more than $34,000 into the case. Williams had purportedly agreed to pay $10,000 toward attorney fees, according to the note, and was being refunded $2,592 because she had paid $12,592.
When reached by phone Wednesday, Grant said that she was at a family memorial out of state and would see whether she could meet The News Tribune’s 5 p.m. deadline to comment on the allegations. Ultimately, Grant didn’t provide a comment to The News Tribune, and an email inquiry sent to her and her firm Wednesday was not returned.
The complaint said Grant and her firm downplayed or denied allegations, refused to accept responsibility and declined to compensate Williams for damages, prompting Williams to take legal action.
Dan Wilmot, an attorney representing Williams in the lawsuit, said in an interview Wednesday that the terms involving attorney fees were changed after Grant had already started representing Williams.
“If she’s going to change the deal with her client, she needs to tell her client to go get an independent legal opinion to see if that makes sense,” Wilmot said.
It was his opinion that Williams hadn’t agreed to pay $10,000 in attorney fees but instead to put that money into a trust for third-party court-related costs.
Williams’ discrimination lawsuit was settled, without admission of fault or wrongdoing by TPS, on Aug. 6 for $3,000, court records show. When offered an opportunity to comment at the time, Grant declined, saying she couldn’t immediately speak about the resolution nor disclose why.
Shortly afterward, The News Tribune spoke with Williams who claimed she hadn’t signed the settlement, saying in an interview that she had only realized the case was dismissed after reading the news story. Williams alleged that she initially agreed to the financial terms but then had reservations. Williams said she believed she could have settled for more and wanted to know how her money had been spent.
“(Grant) didn’t fight for me at all,” Williams said at the time. “$3,000 is not sufficient. What happened? See, I’m trying to figure it out. This whole case dismissal needs to be reversed because I never signed anything.”
The complaint filed Monday, which names Grant, her husband and her law firm as defendants, alleged that Williams was only one of multiple clients of the defendants to be harmed by a “wrongful, deceptive, predatory course of conduct charging and collecting hourly fees under false pretenses based upon contingency fee agreements excluding hourly attorney fee billing.”
The complaint also alleged that Grant had reacted to Williams’ questions over the settlement by verbally berating and demeaning her.
Grant, who’s been practicing law in Washington since 1978, formerly served as a Pierce County Superior Court judge from 2003 to 2013, the lawsuit said. She has no disciplinary history, according to a search through the Washington State Bar Association.
Wilmot said he was still investigating how much Williams paid Grant. He said Grant should have known that her alleged actions were wrong.
“If she didn’t know that, she shouldn’t be anywhere near a client or practicing law,” he said. “She should be out of the profession.”
