Helping You Identify Legal Malpractice
The old adage “you can’t win them all” is true in the legal world as much as in other contexts. It is unrealistic to expect any attorney to win every single case. Sometimes an attorney can handle a case perfectly and still lose. However, if you hired an attorney and lost your case, it might be the result of negligence or malpractice on the part of your lawyer. If that is what happened, you deserve to be compensated for this negligence.
At Badgley Law Group, we have the knowledge and experience to help our clients recognize instances of legal malpractice and to help them obtain compensation for the damages caused by malpractice. With a wealth of legal experience, our lawyers represent clients in Orlando and throughout Central Florida.
When Does Legal Negligence Occur?
There are a number of attorney mistakes that can cause you to have to file a legal malpractice claim. These include:
- Lawyers who miss the statute of limitations, which leave an injured person with no recourse to address the wrongs they have suffered
- Attorneys who fail to attend court hearings or respond to motions
- Attorneys who fail to file a motion, brief or other court required form
- Fail to meet a deadline
- Miss filing a lawsuit within the statute of limitations
- Fail to check for conflicts of interest
- Fail to apply the law correctly
- Misuse or abuse funds from a client’s trust fund
- Lack of communication
Lawyers have a fiduciary duty to protect clients. If they place their own interests ahead of those of their clients, then they have breached this duty and can be held accountable.
Do You Have Grounds For A Legal Malpractice Case?
As mentioned, in legal malpractice situations, a necessary factor that must be present is an established attorney-client relationship. This means the plaintiff has to have actually retained the services of the lawyer (which creates the attorney-client relationship) to have grounds to sue for legal malpractice. While there are a few exceptions, they are very limited.
In the majority of situations, the relationship between the plaintiff and the attorney requires that the lawyer owes a service to the plaintiff. To effectively prove that malpractice took place, the plaintiff has to provide evidence showing the lawyer was hired, or provide proof that the lawyer appeared to work for the client or on the case in some way.
Contact Our Legal Team
We can help you determine whether you have an actionable case of malpractice. Call us at 407-686-1819 or email us to schedule a consultation with an experienced attorney.