Siminou Law Lawyers Discuss Legal Malpractice
Legal malpractice will occur when a lawyer fails to render a competent professional service to their client and the client is damaged as a result of the impending failures. The three major theories of liability are negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and a breach of contract. To prove malpractice, or to otherwise establish your lawyer’s liability, you must first prove that your lawyer owed a duty to represent you competently, that they made a mistake or otherwise breached said duty that was owed to you, and that your lawyer’s mistake then harmed you, causing you damages or loss of case. Additionally, you must file your lawsuit within the statutory time period, also known as the Statute Of Limitations, established by the state law for legal malpractice.Siminou Law Lawyers will make sure that when you work with them, you do not have to worry about nay malpractice. If you have been hurt by another lawyer, you can call their office to make a consultation with a lawyer on how to best help your case against your previous lawyer to ensure they get charged with the proper things.
Types of Claims
Every case is different, but legal malpractice claims usually fall under three categories: Negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract. Negligence will happen when your attorney fails to use the skill and care that is normally expected of a competent lawyer, explains Siminou Law Lawyers. Most legal malpractice claims that end up in court are a direct result of lawyer negligence. Breach of fiduciary duty usually occurs when your lawyer has a conflict of interest that ends up harming you in some sort of way. Breach of contract cases are brought against lawyers who violate their terms of their specific agreement with their client.
Before Suing
If your lawyer did not represent you properly, and you ended up being harmed in the process your lawyer might be liable to you for your loss. But before you decide to pursue a lawsuit against your attorney, try these other alternatives to save you time and money. Discuss fee disputes with your attorney, or engage in fee arbitration with them. Report potential ethics and morals violations to your state bar association, who can give better reprimand to the lawyer and possibly take away their bar if they are found in violation of ethics. You can also hire Siminou Law Lawyers to take over and repair the damage to an ongoing case, so you can be a little more stress free and handle taking care of the problems with your old lawyer after your case is finished. If none of these alternatives brings you any satisfaction, you may want to consider a legal malpractice claim against your attorney. This type of case is very difficult to prove, so you will want to have a consultation with another lawyer to thoroughly investigate your chances of success before proceeding and using up time and money.
Proving a Case
To win a negligence case against a lawyer, you must prove the following things to ensure a healthy case for you. Your lawyer owed a duty to competently represent you; they made a mistake and otherwise breached the duty owed to you during your case; your lawyer’s mistake injured or harmed you in a way that could be measured financially; your lawyer made mistakes that cost you the outcome of your case and possible jail time. Legal malpractice attorneys usually charge a contingency fee of between 40 and 50 percent of the amount you will eventually receive. This is a higher contingency fee than most of the other types of negligence cases, because the legal malpractice lawyer will have to work much harder at proving a legal malpractice case than any other type of negligence case. Any legal malpractice lawyer considering taking your case will want to know whether your original lawyer had any malpractice insurance to cover your losses. Your new attorney will then balance whether or not your provable losses are a high enough risk to invest the time and energy into your trial, says Siminou Law Lawyers. If it isn’t, then they will recommend another lawyer who can handle your case, or else point you in the direction of things to do for your case to help ensure compensation in others ways than going to court with a malpractice suite.