The underlying concept of both is the same, however: a professional failed to abide by or meet required standards of practice. To qualify as legal malpractice, there must be proof that the attorney was negligent, failed to uphold their end of a contract or breached their fiduciary duty. Simply losing a case due to an ineffective, yet well-planned strategy does not warrant legal malpractice, nor does failing to take on a case. Lastly, victims of legal malpractice must be able to prove that the outcome of their case was altered because of the shortcomings of their lawyer.
For instance, a criminal lawyer represents a client in a civil case despite not fully understanding civil law in the jurisdiction. The client loses the case. Even still, the client must be then be able to show that they would not have lost and suffered damages if their lawyer had better understood civil law.
Even robots, who supposedly have no human error, malfunction sometimes. You can only file for legal malpractice if you can prove that attorney truly did something wrong. Ready to learn more? The thing with malpractice is you have to prove that they made a mistake 1. The body can decide to place that implant differently on one side than the other.
You enclosed an allergy, and they overlooked it, putting your safety at risk. Negligence is often cited when taking children away from their parents, for example. Or pets away from families. The same is true for keeping pets outside during bad storms or not getting them needed medical attention. To prove attorney malpractice, in either harm or negligence, you have to prove you have an attorney-client relationship. Usually doing this is easy, as you sign a contract that you agree to let them represent you.
Every lawyer has an ethical duty to represent your best interests. This also means that they need to respond to your messages promptly or, at the very least, within a reasonable time frame.
If your attorney fails to communicate appropriately, you may end up missing out on crucial information to your case, which may, in turn, result in missed settlement offers and deadlines. They need to inform you of any decisions and emerging circumstances that relate to your case. They need to consult regularly with you to discuss how best to accomplish your legal goals.
Your client file is your property. This means that if you fire your lawyer and ask them to hand over your file, they have to return it promptly.
When you retain a lawyer to represent you, you trust that they have the knowledge, expertise, and experience required to get you the best outcome at the end of the process. This also means that they must be sufficiently prepared to deal with any matters that crop up, whether its settlement negotiations or trial.
If, in the process, you realize that they are not competent enough to handle your case as they should, those too are grounds for filing a complaint. They should, therefore, avoid any situation that would create a conflict of interest. If your lawyer is charging you an exorbitant amount of money in fees, refusing to transfer the settlement money owed to you, misplacing, or even stealing your funds — these are all complaint-worthy ethical violations.
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