How to Present a Legal Malpractice Case
If you believe that an attorney failed to meet his or her professional obligations in representing you in a legal matter, you have two courses of action available to you. You can file a complaint with the attorney licensing authority in your state, or you can pursue a legal malpractice case. If you elect to present a legal malpractice case, documenting what did and did not occur in regard to your situation is crucial.
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Things You'll Need
- Code of Professional Responsibility
- Billing statements from attorney
- Documents relating to legal matter at issue
Instructions
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Organize all documents associated with the legal matter and attorney in question. Include billing statements you received from the lawyer with this documentation. In many instances, billing statements provide at least a preliminary road map of what the attorney did and did not do in representing your interests.
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Read and familiarize yourself with the Code of Professional Responsibility for Attorneys in your state. Although the Code is not definitive in determining whether or not an attorney is guilty of legal malpractice, the provisions do provide guidelines to what is acceptable professional conduct of a lawyer. Oftentimes an attorney who violates the Code is also guilty of malpractice. You can obtain the Code from the state or local bar association, the attorney licensing authority or the state supreme court.
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Prepare your own written synopsis of the unfolding of events in regard to representation by the attorney in question. Ideally, you made some contemporaneous notes while the lawyer actually was engaged to represent your interests. If you do have such notes, include them in your synopsis of the matter.
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Engage the services of an expert to review your potential case. There are attorneys who specialize specifically in representing individuals who have experienced legal malpractice. Not all communities have such specialists, making it necessary to look beyond your city or town for assistance. (As a practical matter, if you are in a small to mid-size community, a local lawyer who specializes in this type of representation may balk at assisting in a case against a colleague in the local bar.)
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Make a demand for payment for damages on the lawyer following the expert review of your situation (providing the expert believes that there is a legitimate case of malpractice). You likely are wise to retain the services of this legal expert to assist you in pursuing your legal malpractice case. These are complicated cases and professional assistance is highly advisable.
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File an appropriate malpractice petition with the court in the county in which the lawyer maintains his or her practice. The procedures for filing this type of civil suit are found in the rules of civil procedure for the courts in your state, as well as in the local rules of the court in the jurisdiction in which the attorney you desire to sue practices law.
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