Question

A lawyer and his client split the money that a jury awarded the client in a personal injury lawsuit. From his share, the lawyer paid his two assistants $15,000 each and ended up making $50,000 from the case. What was the amount of the jury award?

Answer 1

Note because editing is bugged in QC: I know how to solve this kind of math but the wording is questionable.

Issues:
1. Lawyer and client split money. But how much? 50-50? 30-70?
2. The lawyer pays $15,000 to each of his assistants so he gives away $30,000
3. The lawyer has $50,000 - is this his final amount or BEFORE he splits with the assistants?

Answer 2

ok #2 is not an issue, my bad lol

Answer 3

You would assume that it's 50-50 because they haven't told you otherwise. Settlements get split in various ways depending on the case and the firm and whatnot so without them telling you something specific, you have to assume that it's a 50-50 settlement.

As for #3, I think you're overthinking the problem lol.

If the settlement was 'x' then the lawyer's share would be x/2

From that, he's paid 15,000 to 2 employees and ended up making 50,000

The phrase "ended up" and the sentence structure all suggest that 50k is how much money is left over for himself from the x/2 share after paying his employees

Answer 4

Responding to #3 - Always have to be sure because math grading can be stingy (I got dinged once in middle school for missing a simple addition step... which is why I get paranoid about showing nearly every step on paper) :p

Thanks for clarifying!

Answer 5

Just to summarize, though:
1. fifty-fifty split between lawyer and client
2. From his original share the lawyer pays out $30k total equally to his two assistants.
3. The lawyer has $50k left over for himself.

Did I get that all right? haha

Answer 6

Yes, that's right

Answer 7

Okay, thanks.
Leaving this up as a tutorial for others, then! :-)