When New Jersey residents are involved in legal disputes, they generally hire attorneys. While in the U.S. a citizen may represent him or herself in a legal matter, people generally put their trust into professionals to guide them through such matters. Both New Jersey and federal statutes are complex, and rules and regulations regarding court deadlines and procedures are ever changing–so, an attorney’s job is to remain competent and abreast of all of these elements on your behalf.
However, from time to time an attorney fails to do his or her job. When this happens, the effects can be extremely damaging to the client. When a lawyer lets a client down because of legal incompetence, that client is often wise to hold that lawyer accountable with a legal malpractice lawsuit. A West Virginia attorney and his former partners have faced three legal malpractice suits this year alone.
Oddly, all three legal malpractice cases relate to very similar cases. The most recent suit is based on a case that took place almost 10 years ago, when these three partners reportedly missed a deadline in a medical malpractice suit, causing the suit to be dismissed by a judge.
Two additional families filed lawsuits very similar to this recent one. They also allege that these attorneys were inattentive in a medical malpractice suit, causing the suit’s failure. All three original medical malpractice suits named the same doctor as a defendant.
The disgraced doctor had more than 100 medical malpractice and wrongful death suits filed against him in 2006.
It remains to be seen what will happen in these three legal malpractice cases, but these odd cases do illustrate how important it can be to follow up a botched case with a legal malpractice suit. It is important to recoup your losses, and hold these lawyers accountable so that they do not make the same mistake again with another client.
Source: The Record, “Third legal malpractice suit related to John King filed against Putnam attorney,” Lawrence Smith, April 27, 2012
