What is legal malpractice?

Legal malpractice is a civil suit that you may bring when your attorney breaches his legal duty to you. In order to prevail in a legal malpractice civil suit, the burden is on you, as the plaintiff, to prove the required elements of your case. Those required elements are set under state tort law rules in the location where you live. 

The Definition of Legal Malpractice

Legal malpractice is defined under the law as any situation where a lawyer breaches a legal duty he owes you, and where that breach led to damages. This means you will need to prove:

• Your attorney intentionally or negligently did something no reasonably competent attorney would have done. If your lawyer's actions were a violation of the Professional Rules of Conduct that govern attorneys, or if they were simply shoddy and careless legal work, then your lawyer can be considered in the eyes of the law to have been negligent.
• Your attorney's negligence directly led to some kind of actual damages. This is often the tricky part of a legal malpractice case, since you will need to show that the outcome would have been different had your lawyer been more careful. This is hard to prove because it can be difficult to predict what would have happened in the future. For example, if your lawyer was careless, missed evidence and didn't prepare properly for trial, you may have lost your case. However, can you prove you would have won your case if your lawyer had been better? If so, can you prove how much you would have received in damages, or how much your lawyer's negligent actions caused you? You will need to in order to recover for legal malpractice.

Getting Help

Because proving legal malpractice or “attorney malpractice,” can sometimes be difficult, you will want a lawyer who specializes in legal malpractice on your side to help you win your case.