What Are Grounds for a Legal Malpractice Suit Against a Lawyer?
Legal malpractice is a form of professional malpractice in the litigation circuit. It encompasses a myriad of potential actions, all which center on the attorney's negligence. Like physicians, attorneys are held to a certain "standard of care," which requires all practicing attorneys to perform in a way that most attorneys would. If your attorney breaches his fiduciary duties, you may have a claim for legal malpractice.
It is worth noting that the requirements for legal malpractice claims vary from state to state. While the elements listed below are the most common across all states, the elements of a malpractice claim in your sate may differ and you should review your state's professional code for more state-specific information.
Relationship
To have a claim for legal malpractice, you first must establish the existence of an attorney-client relationship. This means that you must have entered into a contract with the attorney for his services; you remunerated the attorney for his time (unless he performed the work pro bono) and did not owe the attorney any money at the time the breach allegedly occur; and the contract was still active at the time the breach occurred. If the attorney terminated your relationship at any time prior to the alleged breach, then there was no attorney-client relationship and you do not have a claim for legal malpractice.
Negligence
After establishing an attorney-client relationship, you must demonstrate that negligence actually occurred. Negligence encompasses many things and state laws broadly define negligence to allow for case-by-case determination. For example, if your attorney failed to file an answer on your behalf and misses the deadline to do so, this would satisfy the element of negligence. If your attorney simply loses your case, but performed by the terms of the contract with reasonable standard of care, this would not satisfy the element of negligence.
Injury
Once you establish negligence, you must demonstrate that you suffered an injury. Using the above example, if your attorney failed to file an answer on your behalf, the opposing party may move for a default judgment and your attorney's negligence caused you to lose your case before you had a chance to respond. This would cause you serious injury, which would satisfy this element of malpractice. Note that it is entirely possible for an attorney to be negligent without causing you any injury. If this is the case, you do not satisfy the injury requirement and you do not have a claim for legal malpractice.
Causation
If you did suffer an injury because of your attorney's negligence, you must prove the attorney's negligence was a proximate cause of your injury. The "proximate" requirement permits both direct and indirect causation, allowing claimants to file for malpractice if they can demonstrate that the attorney's negligence may have even directly caused injury. Absent causation, you do not have a claim for legal malpractice, even if you satisfy the first three elements.
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