This is another very important and recurring issue in the legal malpractice field. Most states have a rule that provides that a criminal defendant cannot sue his former attorney unless he establishes that he is actually innocent. Texas prefers the term “exoneration.” This year the Texas Supreme Court, in Gray…
One defense in a legal malpractice case is that the lawyer exercised judgment (usually at trial) and, therefore, he should not be liable for legal malpractice. One way to explain this is to make an analogy to the role of a baseball manager. In my example, the manager’s team is…
In Moreton Binn v. Muchnick, Golieb and Golieb, P.C. 2020 NY Slip Op 02020, the plaintiffs sued their lawyers for allegedly poor advice causing them to lose majority control of a series of corporations they owned. The court rejected the claims for a variety of reasons. First, some claims were…
The case, Herren v. Armenta, No. 1-CA-CV-18-0381 (Arizona Court of Appeals January 14, 2020) is a legal malpractice case where Herren lost her underlying case, a business dispute. As we shall see, despite evidence of negligence she also lost the legal malpractice case. In the underlying matter, Herren hired Armenta…
This video contains a short discussion of why we may reject a case.
I have prepared a short video to discuss how to respond to negative reviews. The key issue is that a lawyer cannot share any confidential information about a client and cannot disparage a client or former client.
It is extremely rare for a plaintiff to succeed in a legal malpractice case without obtaining an expert witness to testify as to the appropriate standard of care. Plaintiffs who attempt to prevail without an expert usually see their case dismissed on a summary judgment motion by the Defendant. However,…
Generally, in Illinois, the successful plaintiff in a legal malpractice action can recover from the lawyer the same damages that he could recover in the underlying case. So, in a personal injury case, the plaintiff can recover (a) economic damages, such as medical bills and lost wages and (b) pain…
A former divorce client who was held in criminal contempt in the divorce case sued his former lawyers for legal malpractice. His claim was dismissed and the Court of Appeals of California, Second District, affirmed the conviction. The case is Parchin v. Feinberg Mindel Brandt and Klein B295202, dated February…
The case is captioned Patterson v. Kohn, 2017 AP 1524, decided by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. Patterson sued his former criminal defense lawyer for failing to properly investigate his defense (self-defense to a reckless homicide charge), and interview witnesses. Patterson was unable to obtain an expert witness to support…