Professional Liability Matters

OJ Simpson’s fall from fame is well documented. The disgraced football running back’s latest legal woes stem from an altercation in a hotel room in which the Juice was allegedly joined by armed men. That story ended with his incarceration. Now, OJ is back in a Las Vegas courtroom with a new team of attorneys and a novel argument: Simpson’s former attorney is to blame for the 2008 conviction. In the latest chapter in OJ’s lengthy legal history, the “Juice” claims that poor legal advice is the sole reason he was incarcerated.

One of the foundations of the attorney-client relationship is confidentiality. Apart from limited exceptions, attorneys are generally precluded from disclosing a client’s confidential information to a third-party and must act at all times in the client’s best interest. It is well established that failure to do so may constitute an ethical violation and perhaps professional misconduct. A recent $40 million lawsuit claims that an attorney’s breach of his client’s confidences led to the client’s murder. Uh oh.

Prejudgment interest awards are often overlooked in evaluating a claim, especially legal malpractice matters. Typically, when valuing exposure, the focus centers upon the underlying action had the attorney avoided alleged negligence. But overlooking the impact of prejudgment interest can prove to be a costly mistake. Depending upon the statutory interest rate in your jurisdiction and the potential amount of the award, prejudgment interest can transform a nuisance value malpractice case into a hefty judgment.

Let’s start with the basic principle: an attorney’s duty runs exclusively to the client apart from limited circumstances of fraud when an attorney may be liable to the client’s adversary. The question remains whether an attorney’s decision to keep her mouth shut – i.e. not to disclose key information to the other side – constitutes actionable fraud. According to a recent decision by the Texas Appeals Court, the fact that an attorney did not disclose information to her adversary does not constitute actionable misconduct.

You are what you eat – but for lawyers, you are what you sign, file, verify or plead. An attorney in Pittsburgh just learned this lesson the hard way and is now $20,000 lighter in the wallet. The failure to properly investigate his client’s “frivolous” gun malfunction claim has landed Attorney Jason Schiffman with the hefty sanction after the judge disagreed with the attorney’s plea that he had reasonably relied on his client.

Reaching a settlement agreement is supposed to conclude litigation, right? Well the failure to draft a clear settlement agreement may result in serious repercussions for client and attorney. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that a plaintiff is entitled to attorneys’ fees and costs due to a vague offer of judgment.