Estate Planning for the Practicing Accountant Webinar – September 12
Media Legal Malpractice Lawyer Discusses What Happens if You Think Your Attorney Committed Legal Malpractice
As a skilled Media Legal Malpractice Lawyer I get questions all the time from clients about an attorney committing legal malpractice while your case is still pending. We often have clients contact us that have cases that are still pending in litigation but they think their attorney may have screwed up or done something to hurt the chances of the case. That creates a unique challenge because we need to reach out to that attorney and put them on notice of a potential lawsuit while also not completely breaking down your relationship with that attorney in the event they are successful. Ultimately a malpractice case is predicated on the failure of the underlying matter. That being said, the quickest and easiest way to get you the remedy you are seeking is the underlying matter itself. Under those circumstances what we generally do is put together a notice letter to go out to the attorney letting them know that we are investigating a potential claim as opposed to preparing to file a claim. In that instance, what we ask that attorney to do is put that insurance carrier on notice of a potential claim.
Hopefully if the carrier is amenable to this, we will want to negotiate a tolling agreement. What that does is tolls the statute of limitations on your malpractice claim while your underlying case is still pending. It’s very important to remember the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania and most jurisdictions, including Delaware and New Jersey where we also practice. The statute of limitations starts to run at the time the attorney committed his or her error, not at the time your case ultimately is unsuccessful. It’s just something that we need to consider and it needs to be done in a very professional and very polite manner because, as I said before, we don’t want to upset your attorney who has the best chance of getting you the money you need as quickly as possible.
If you have any questions regarding what happens if you think your attorney committed legal malpractice but your case is still pending, please contact our Media Legal Malpractice Lawyer for a free case evaluation.
This educational blog was brought to you by experienced Legal Malpractice Lawyer Patrick K. Gibson. Our law firm proudly represents clients throughout Media, as well as Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Related posts
