Legal Developments and Risk Management Tips Impacting the Professional Liability Community.
Breach of contract or professional negligence…who cares? Often a dissatisfied former client may raise a malpractice claim under claims of breach of contract and professional negligence. Both claims may rest on similar, if not the same, set of facts. Historically, the gist of the action doctrine would bar a plaintiff from recasting an ordinary tort …
Malpractice claims against attorneys, and the severity of those claims, continue to rise. In fact, legal malpractice claims have been trending up for the last 15 years or so. Whether that’s due to economic factors, the sheer number of attorneys, insurance implications or otherwise, clients are seemingly more willing to sue their attorney today than …
Under Rule 1.6(c)(4) of the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct — and similar rules in many states — a lawyer may disclose confidential client information “to the extent the lawyer reasonably believes necessary” to defend against criminal charges, civil claims, or disciplinary actions arising from allegations of misconduct. In other words, if a client sues for malpractice or accuses her …
As recently reported by Law360, a Pennsylvania lawyer and a litigation funder are facing racketeering and malpractice claims. A Pennsylvania federal judge recently declined to dismiss claims brought by a client accusing his former lawyer of engaging in a conspiracy to improperly charge him inflated legal fees to cover high-interest litigation loans. In the underlying …
A quirky reality of litigation is that the amount of recoverable dollars often dictates the strategy and approach. Maybe no one said it better than Biggie: “mo money, mo problems.” Especially in the context of an insured defendant, the applicable policy limits and coverage terms play a large role in shaping the litigation. In a …
FACTS OF THE UNDERLYING ACTION On September 6, 2024, an action was commenced in New York State Supreme Court, New York County, on behalf of Steven Nerayoff, an attorney and alleged crypto founder, who, when working for the Ethereum blockchain, allegedly “invented the ‘Utility Token’ and a structured method for selling these new digital assets …
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania recently affirmed the summary judgment dismissal of a multi-million-dollar legal malpractice case against a Pennsylvania attorney defended by Goldberg Segalla. The victory — secured by partner Seth Laver with assistance from partner Daniel Strick and attorney Joseph Ross — was particularly significant in that it involved complex, underlying issues and was heard in the often-difficult Philadelphia …
Stellar defense work by Goldberg Segalla partner Christopher F. Lyon and associate Matthew H. Feinberg secured in New York Supreme Court the dismissal of a claim brought against our client in a legal malpractice action. The case was filed by a plaintiff who sued her former attorneys for allegedly failing to add in a timely manner a volunteer ambulance …
Uh oh. Surveyed legal malpractice insurance carriers pointed to sympathetic jurors and aversion to trying cases as possible explanations for an “all-time high” in claims payouts despite similar year-over-year volume. According to data compiled by Ames & Gough, factors such as runaway verdicts and litigation financing have contributed to the rise in settlements. Those factors …
That’s the question on the minds of many in the legal malpractice community after a noteworthy decision in Pennsylvania. It’s probably reasonable to assume — at least from the defense standpoint — that the success rate of a statute of limitations (SOL) defense to a legal malpractice claim is virtually zero. This may be …