The case is Tebbens v. Levin & Conde, 2018 IL App (1st) 170777. Tebbens believed that his former divorce counsel made an error in drafting the marital settlement agreement and drafted an agreement that was not consistent with what the parties had verbally agreed to. This is a tough case…
This case, KLIGER-WEISS INFOSYSTEMS, INC., Respondent, v. RUSKIN MOSCOU FALTISCHEK, P.C., Appellant. 2015-06404, Index No. 606457/14., 2018 NY Slip Op 01456, was recently decided by the New York Appellate Division. KWI sued its former lawyers for legal malpractice for failing to include a so-called “evergreen” provision in a settlement agreement in…
This issue comes up every now and then. An attorney files a collection lawsuit against a client and obtains a judgment against the client. (Here the client did not appear and a default judgment was entered). Later, the client reviews the attorney’s work and files a legal malpractice lawsuit. May the…
In this case, the Minnesota Court of Appeals holds that a client’s executor has standing to pursue a legal malpractice claim against an estate planning attorney. Gordon Savoie sought estate planning advice from a law firm. That law firm prepared an estate plan for him. Upon his death, a bank…
This is a rare patent malpractice case. According to the court, the plaintiff alleged that the lawyers failed to properly file and amend various patent claims and that the errors of the lawyers caused them economic damages. The lawyer defendants moved to dismiss on the ground that the plaintiff had…
The underlying case was a personal injury case. The plaintiff hired a lawyer to represent her in that case and the lawyer obtained a settlement of the lawsuit that the plaintiff accepted. Despite accepting the settlement, the plaintiff sued for legal malpractice. The trial court dismissed the lawsuit and the…
Source: HARBORD v. SAFEWAY, INC., Wash: Court of Appeals, 1st Div. 2017 – Google Scholar The plaintiff claimed that her lawyer committed malpractice by agreeing to the entry of a stipulated protective order. The lawyer had brought a wrongful employment termination case against Safeway, Inc. Plaintiff did not prevail in…
The Supreme Court of Washington has held that a client who sues his former attorney for legal malpractice may not allege that the lawyer’s withdrawal from the underlying case was improper if that withdrawal was approved by a judge. The court succinctly puts the issue this way: In this case,…
One of the more vexing issues in the area of legal malpractice is what happens when the plaintiff settles the underlying case. In most states, the plaintiff would have to prove that but for the negligence of the defendant attorney, he would have obtained a better financial result in the…
This issue comes up fairly frequently and almost all of the courts which have considered it have answered it the exact same way. An owner of a unit of a condominium does not have standing to sue the attorney for the condominium association. The lawyer for the association is responsible…