Legal Malpractice Issues
To meet their professional obligations to their clients, attorneys who represent divorcing spouses must be highly knowledgeable about state divorce laws – and many lawyers are. Often highly skilled in the negotiation of marital settlement agreements and in courtroom...
It is common for many lawsuits to settle before reaching the courtroom or even during the trial phase. A settlement agreement between parties in litigation is a negotiated contract to resolve the dispute without proceeding to a verdict. A settlement provides finality...
When an attorney commits legal malpractice, to what kind of money damages might the client be entitled? As we have discussed in this space, a negligent lawyer is one who has violated their duty of care to the client, but the client only becomes eligible for legal...
On March 26, 2021, a California appeals court reinstated a legal malpractice lawsuit that the trial court had thrown out, filed by well-known athletic trainer Jillian Michaels, who starred on The Biggest Loser for many seasons. While the appeals court’s opinion dealt...
One of the main tasks of a lawyer is to use legal documents to accomplish what their clients want or need. An attorney may need to create or draft a unique legal document or know which official or standard document to use to meet a particular client goal. The use of...
The practice of law touches every aspect of human life – from personal affairs to business matters to issues of loss, injury and death. It would be impossible for any one lawyer to have in-depth knowledge of every type of legal service. Some types of law are so...
Under the umbrella of legal malpractice are two kinds of claims against a lawyer: breach of the duty of care and breach of fiduciary duty. Each duty involves a different professional aspect of the attorney-client relationship. Broadly, the duty of care concerns...
As in other professions, the practice of law has become highly automated and dependent on technology for functions that people previously performed manually. For example: Office and case management software, including electronic calendars and tickler systems, help...
We recently wrote about why an attorney’s duty of care to a client is limited by the scope of the agreed-to representation. As we explained, when a lawyer and client enter into an agreement that the attorney will represent the client for a particular purpose, legal...
Part 1 of this post introduced the concept within legal malpractice law of defining the lawyer’s duty of care to the client by the scope of the agreed-upon reason the client hired the attorney. For what problem, goal or service did the client seek the lawyer’s...