The Supreme Court of Texas has issued an opinion in USA Lending Group, Inc. v. Winstead, P.C., 669 S.W.3d 195 (2023). In this case the client sued its former law firm for failing to request damages in a default judgment motion. USA Lending hired the law firm to sue its…
Buchanan v. Law Offices of Sheldon E. Green, P.C., 2023 NY Slip Op 1980 (New York Appellate Division, 2nd Department 2023), appears to be a slam dunk legal malpractice case but it was dismissed. Why? Because the plaintiff failed to plausibly allege that she would have won the underlying case.…
One of the persistent and more difficult challenges in legal malpractice cases is proving that the client would have won the underlying case but for the negligence of the lawyer. This is known as but/for causation or proximate causation. In this case the plaintiff was a superintendent of a school…
In Mid-City Electrical Corporation v. Peckar & Abramson, 2023 NY Slip Op 1085, the New York Appellate Division, Second Department affirmed the dismissal of legal malpractice claims against company attorneys. First, the court ruled that the owners of Mid-City were not clients of Peckar & Abramson because they were not…
This is a case of litigation malpractice. In Best Choice Products, Inc. v. Hendrick, Bryant, Nerhod, Sanders & Otis, Ltd, No. COA21-163, the Court of Appeals of North Carolina reinstated a legal malpractice action. Law Firm had represented Best Choice in an underlying case. According to the Complaint, the Law…
In any lawsuit, the plaintiff must prove proximate causation, that the actions of the defendant caused him injury. Here, in a bankruptcy malpractice case, the plaintiff was unable to prove proximate causation. Plaintiff alleged that the bankruptcy lawyers breached the standard of care when the failed to extinguish a liability…
In Ring v. Schencker, 2021 IL App (1st) 180909-U, Barry Ring sued his former father-in-law, Richard Schencker for legal malpractice. During the marriage Ring was represented by Schencker in his business dealings. When he was divorced, Ring alleged that Schencker divulged confidential information to the attorneys for Ring’s wife (Schencker’s…
Every plaintiff must surmount the hurdle of proximate causation. You cannot just allege that the lawyer committed malpractice, you must show how the error caused you damage. If you cannot do that, your legal malpractice case will be dismissed. In Katsoris v. Bodnar & Milone, LLP, 2020 NY Slip Op…
This is a case raising a proximate causation argument. To prove malpractice the plaintiff must allege and prove that but for the negligence of the attorney he would have won the underlying case. Here, in Ackerman v. Dembin, 2020 NY Slip Op 32398(U), a doctor was disciplined by the New…
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…