As you know, lawyers — as much as they are highly trained professionals — are human and prone to occasional error. However, if an attorney you chose as a representative were to exhibit a pattern of negligent, unethical or incompetent behavior that led to a demonstratable loss on your part, then you could potentially have more than a simple mistake on your hands. Florida law holds lawyers to a relatively strict code of conduct. You could have a chance to recover losses resulting from direct violations of this code.
As you might expect, there would probably be a number of barriers to recovering damages in a malpractice case. The most significant challenge would likely be to establish the facts of your case in the first place. In essence, you would need to connect the actions of your attorney directly to a specific loss. One thing that could satisfy this requirement might be providing proof you would have won damages, had your attorney acted appropriately.
Another challenge would probably be the defendant. Most attorneys are either acquainted with a competent malpractice lawyer or are versed in the law itself. Additionally, malpractice defendants tend to take cases seriously, mounting a tenacious opposition to accusations. This would necessitate attention to detail and tenacity on your part.
One final problem with legal malpractice involves cases that go to trial. While defendants of many of these types of actions prefer to settle outside of court, plaintiffs often face a high level of initial defendant credibility in juried proceedings. As stated in Findlaw, juries tend to hold educated individuals in relatively high regard, even if these individuals are defendants in a professional malpractice case. Please do not think of this as legal advice: it is meant only to educate.