The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that a plaintiff in a legal malpractice case must prove the collectibility of damages in "the case within the case" to recover them from a negligent lawyer. In doing so, it specifically rejected the notion that the defendant lawyer must prove the lack of…
Negligence without causation is like a biscuit without country ham (or blackberry jam). Now, I’m not so sure that juries pay as much attention to the concept as lawyers and judges, but causation is an element of every cause of action in the tort world. This decision out of Michigan…
Rudolf fired his lawyers after a jury trial that resulted in a 50% finding of comparative fault and a total verdict of $250,000. He then hired a new lawyer, got a new trial, and then settled his case for $750,000. Next, he sued his original lawyers for malpractice, saying that he failed…
The Hawaii Supreme Court has ruled that two law firms who represented a party in a business dispute cannot be sued by the adversary party for intentional interference with contractual relations. Plaintiff had a dispute with a business partner – the two were general partners of a partnership that ran…
Last Fall I wrote several posts ( here and here) on a one portion of the causation issue in legal malpractice cases. A summary of my view: I believe that a plaintiff in a legal malpractice case arising out of a claim that a personal injury case was mis-handled must prove…
The Court of Appeal of California has ruled that a lawyer may be sued for failure to warn a client that the failure to settle a claim against the client would put the client at risk for paying the adversary’s attorneys fees. The Court held that it was not appropriate to dismiss the…
Here is an interesting article on a lawyer who sues lawyers.
The Tennessee Supreme Court has rejected the notion of a locality rule for lawyers in legal malpractice cases. In Chapman v. Bearfield, No. E2004-02596-SC-R11-CV (Tenn. S. C., November 6, 2006), the Court said that "a single, statewide professional standard of care exists for attorneys practicing in Tennessee and that expert…
Believe it or not yesterday’s post brought in more comments than any other post in a 24-hour period. I have published some of the comments; other comments seemed to address personal situations so I thought it best to pass on those. Let me respond to several of the comments. Bill said…
I am currently defending a legal malpractice case for a friend of mine and have insisted that the plaintiff prove that amount of damages that would have been collectible in the underlying tort case. I have a hearing on this issue coming up shortly; the trial is this Winter. I…