This case, Desetti v. Chester, (Virginia Supreme Court), June 4, 2015, holds that a criminal defendant cannot bring a legal malpractice claim against her former lawyer because she was not factually innocent of the charge. Few legal malpractice cases succeed in the criminal context because the plaintiff (formerly the criminal…
Fink v. SHELDON BANK, Ill: Appellate Court, 1st Dist., 3rd Div. 2013 – Google Scholar. Illinois has long followed the actual innocence rule, which holds that a criminal defendant may not sue his former attorney for legal malpractice unless he can prove that he was actually innocent of the crime.…
This case is a somewhat routine affirmance of a bank fraud conviction and the rejection of an ineffective assistance of counsel claim. The Defendant alleged that her lawyer rendered ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to call certain witnesses at the trial of the case. In the criminal world, an…