Attorneys learn a lot of valuable information in law school. Some of the topics that their textbooks and professors stress are how to uphold their obligations to the clients. They can minimize their chances of being accused of legal malpractice by doing so.
Lawyers learn in law school to document everything, not miss any statutes of limitations and avoid any potential conflicts of interest. They receive this advice because these are some of the more common reasons that attorneys find themselves sued for legal malpractice.
Any attorney that you reach out to represent you must determine if there’s a potential conflict of interest before taking you on as a client. It’s unethical for a lawyer to allow you to hire them if they’ve previously represented someone with competing interests. If they do, then this may be considered as a breach of loyalty.
Lawyers are supposed to document everything and to store any client or case information securely. They may also need to utilize this information to justify any decisions that they made should a lawsuit be filed against them. Attorneys must document how they spent their time and money working on the case and their attempts to reach out to their clients to discuss it.
You might be able to sue your attorney for legal malpractice if they failed to keep a detailed record of the efforts that they took on your behalf, especially if their actions resulted in a poor outcome in your case.
There are statutes of limitations or dates by which attorneys must file certain motions in your case. These deadlines exist to make sure that you can fully exercise your rights. Your lawyer must know when these dates fall. A judge is unlikely to accept the excuse that a lawyer forgot or that they had an emergency come up that prevented them from meeting a deadline if you file a malpractice lawsuit against your attorney.
Your attorney’s biggest fear is likely a legal malpractice lawsuit. It can result in the Florida Bar Association taking disciplinary action against them. It can also lead them to have to pay you civil penalties for any damage they caused. A legal malpractice law attorney can review your case to see if your lawyer engaged in unprofessional conduct and advise you of the legal options that you can pursue if that was the case.