This case is typical of divorce malpractice cases. The plaintiff sued his former lawyers on the ground that they did not adequately address a potential problem of his settlement agreement with his wife. The problem, apparently, was that after the divorce the plaintiff was unable to refinance a loan on one of his commercial properties. That led to unspecified damages. Plaintiff then filed a legal malpractice case on a pro se basis. The court granted the defendant’s summary judgment motion on the basis that plaintiff did not retain an expert witness to testify on his behalf.
Cases holding that a plaintiff in a legal malpractice case must have an expert are legion. Despite this, in my experience, many nonlawyers do not understand why retaining an expert is so important. The retained expert testifies concerning the standard of care and offers an opinion as to whether the lawyers met the standard of care or did not meet the standard of care. The law views lawyers in the same way that it views medical doctor. A doctor is required to establish the medical standard of care. In similar fashion, the plaintiff here needed a divorce lawyer to offer an opinion as to the manner and method of practice of divorce lawyers in these situations.
Thus, before filing a legal malpractice case, consider whether or not you have the resources to retain a qualified expert. In a patent case, you need a patent lawyer. In a divorce case, you need a divorce lawyer. Without an expert a plaintiff is just wasting everyone’s time and money on a legal malpractice case that is not going anywhere.