Source: Janousek v. KATTEN MUCHIN ROSENMAN LLP, Ill: Appellate Court, 1st Dist., 2nd Div. 2015 – Google Scholar Illinois has a two-year statute of limitations period which applies to legal malpractice claims. Here, the Appellate Court held that the two-year statute operated to bar claims against a law firm that…
This case is captioned 2015 CO 61, Concerning the Application for Water Rights of the Town of Minturn: J. Tucker, Trustee v. Town of Minturn. The Colorado Supreme Court held that a non-attorney trustee of a trust may not proceed pro se before the water court. The court reasoned that…
This case is captioned Bode & Grenier, LLC v. Carroll L. Knight. Carroll Knight retained the law firm, Bode & Grenier, LLC, to assist it with litigation and regulatory matters arising out of an oil spill of 100,000 gallons of oil on Carroll Knight’s property in Toledo, Ohio. The lawyers…
Source: LOANVEST I, LLC v. Utrecht, 235 Cal. App. 4th 496 – Cal: Court of Appeal, 1st Appellate Dist., 3rd Div. 2015 – Google Scholar The plaintiff sued its former attorneys for legal malpractice. The attorneys then moved to dismiss under the provisions of California’s Anti-SLAPP statute. The Anti-SLAPP statute…
Source: Davidson v. GUREWITZ, Ill: Appellate Court, 2nd Dist. 2015 – Google Scholar In recent years, there have been several attempts by dissatisfied family law litigants to sue lawyers appointed by the courts to serve various roles. This case involves an attempt to sue a court-appointed child’s representative for legal…
Source: PARALLEL NETWORKS, LLC v. JENNER & BLOCK LLP, Tex: Court of Appeals, 5th Dist. 2015 – Google Scholar This is a decision affirming an arbitrator’s award of legal fees to Jenner & Block. The case is a typical attorney-client fee dispute, but here the Court enforced the parties’ arbitration…
Source: IN THE MATTER OF ESTATE OF AMUNDSON, 2015 ND 253 – ND: Supreme Court 2015 – Google Scholar This appeal dealt with the issue of fees charged to probate estates. The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed a judgement against a lawyer that he repay $95,000 in legal fees that…
To win a legal malpractice case the plaintiff must prove a case-within-a-case and show that, but for the breach of the standard of care by the attorney, the plaintiff would have prevailed in the underlying case. Here are some examples of client complaints about lawyers that won’t meet that standard.…
A legal malpractice case requires careful analysis. Even if the lawyer was negligent in some way, did the negligence make any difference in the ultimate outcome? To evaluate a legal malpractice case, you must evaluate the underlying case as well. Rodi v. Horstman, 2015 IL App (1st) 142787 is such…
In most states, a former client of a criminal defense lawyer cannot sue for legal malpractice unless he can establish “actual innocence.” The Actual Innocence rule bars almost all legal malpractice claims against criminal defense lawyers. The purported basis for the rule is that the guilty person should not profit…