How to Prove and Bring a Legal Malpractice Case
So how can you prove a case or bring a case of legal malpractice? Maybe you have an attorney that you think did something wrong. Hi, this is Dave Pellegrino, licensed private investigator, also licensed certified civil court mediator. We do a lot of mediation in court. Many times a plaintiff or defendant in a court is going to have some type of beef or dispute with their own attorney, thinking their attorney did something wrong. They didn’t do the case right. Maybe they made a mistake; they made an error, and you want to sue them for malpractice, just like you know medical malpractice that the attorney did something wrong. Certainly, there’s a process for doing that.
Finding Representation
A couple of things to keep in mind. Like any other case, there may be obstacles to bringing that case. First of all, if you’re going to sue an attorney for legal malpractice, you have to have another attorney to represent you. Now technically, you can do a case what’s called pro se, meaning that you don’t need an attorney. However, it’s going to be very difficult to win against an attorney if you don’t have your own attorney, right? So you’re going to need an attorney. So first of all, you’re going to have to find an attorney that’s willing to sue another attorney, right? They’re all in the same industry; they’re all in the same profession. So unless it’s a very egregious case, you may have difficulty finding an attorney.
Seeking Advice and Consultation
You can check out our website to get some really good suggestions on how to find an attorney to take your case, of any kind of case. And also do consultation with us if you want to get some one-on-one advice for your particular scenario. The second thing to keep in mind is many what you would call errors or mistakes or things that happened in a case are very subjective, right? An attorney can make the argument that in hindsight it may have been an error, but “I believed genuinely in good faith that what I was doing was correct.” Just because you lost your case doesn’t mean it was malpractice.
Evaluating Mistakes
If they did something like miss a deadline or made a mistake or filed the wrong paperwork, you may have some kind of claim for damages. But even in those cases, the courts and juries understand that people make mistakes. You have to quantify what it is. The practical obstacles to suing and winning for legal malpractice are much higher than suing and winning against somebody who crashed into you and you broke your arm in a car crash because it’s easy to see the cause and effect of a mistake in driving or a drunk driver or somebody at an employer that had a workers’ comp claim.
Understanding Legal Perspectives
An attorney can make the argument that they did what they believed to be in your best interest at the time. There’s a big difference between a jury looking at an employer that left some hot chemicals and somebody burned their arm that’s obviously a mistake versus an attorney making a decision in a court case. So I’m not saying to disregard any bad acts by an attorney, but also take it with a grain of salt that many times in hindsight, after the fact when you’ve lost a court case or have had bad adverse actions happen, it’s easy to say, “Well, the attorney made a mistake.” In hindsight, they may have made a mistake, but it’s a very difficult process to go through.
Uphill Battle
For the most part, attorneys mean well. They’re like anybody else; some are good, some are bad. But even the bad ones aren’t doing things on purpose to hurt people; they may just be overlooking things. So be aware that it’s a very hard uphill battle. You’re going to have a presumption that the attorney tried to do the right thing. You have to remember the other people involved in the case the judge, they’re an attorney. They’re going to know really what happens with attorneys and lawyers, and not just what is seen from the layperson’s point of view.
Genuine Malpractice Cases
But if you do have a genuine case of an attorney making a mistake, a good and honest and just attorney is going to say, “Yep, I made a mistake. File it with my insurance,” and they have errors and omissions insurance that would cover that. If they don’t do that, they might honestly believe that what they did was correct, and they’re going to argue that against you in court. So you’re going to have to find a very good lawyer that will be able to articulate your position and your arguments to have all the parties involved, the judge and jury, see your point of view and make sure you have good evidence to back up what you’re saying.
