Legal Malpractice

Legal Malpractice Overview

Legal malpractice claims arise when an attorney fails to do what a reasonably competent lawyer would do under the circumstances presented in your case. This can range from failing to file your complaint within the statute of limitations, failing to file other papers by deadlines, such as motions or claims, failing to properly investigate your claim, failing to advise you about legal risks, failing to properly advise you about what to settle your case for, or numerous other reasons. Legal malpractice also requires more than a mistake on the part of the attorney – you must be able to identify how the legal malpractice caused harm or damage to your case (for example, failing to meet a statute of limitations filing deadline often means you lose all rights to recover, in which case your damages would be the entire value of your underlying case).