Hiring a lawyer means placing immense trust in someone’s ability to protect your rights. You count on them to fight for you, advance your case, ease your pain, and at the very least, meet filing deadlines. Unfortunately, some lawyers do miss important deadlines, and such a simple mistake can be devastating. Missing certain deadlines might mean your case is dismissed entirely, and failing to respond to a court filing in time can lead to judgments against you. Naturally, our legal malpractice lawyers have been asked many times: Can I sue my lawyer for missing a deadline?
The short answer is yes, sometimes you can. However, not every missed deadline constitutes legal malpractice. Below, we’ll explain why deadlines matter, when a lawyer’s mistake may rise to malpractice, and the five steps you should take to protect yourself if your lawyer made this mistake.
Why Does Missing a Deadline Matter?
In the legal system, important deadlines are not mere suggestions. They are rigid requirements that carry serious weight, and all competent lawyers are expected to meet them. Courts and statutes impose them for a reason: to ensure fairness and efficiency. When these deadlines are missed, the results can be catastrophic, ranging from automatic case dismissal to loss of rights and financial penalties.
Below are a few instances of missed deadlines and the consequences they spell for your legal case.
Statute of Limitations
If your lawyer fails to file your claim before the statute of limitations expires, it is highly likely that you will lose the chance to file a lawsuit entirely.
Request for Admission
During the discovery process, a request for admission is when opposing parties ask the other side to confirm the truth of certain facts, statements, or documents. If your lawyer doesn’t respond within the timeframe, all statements and documents in question may be deemed as true by the court.
Appeal Filing Deadlines
After losing a case, if you miss the deadline to appeal, your ability to challenge or reverse the judgment may be lost forever, even if your lawyer had strong grounds to beat it.
Responses to Motions
Your lawyer must respond to motions from the other side within a deadline imposed by the court or statute. If the opposing side issued a summary judgment motion, for example, and your lawyer fails to dispute it in time, the case will likely end based on no opposition.
Other Deadlines
Depending on what you’ve hired your attorney for, various specific deadlines come into play. For instance, if your attorney misses your tax filing deadline, or if an IP attorney fails to file your copyright applications in time, their negligence can incur significant damages.
Because deadlines are so central to the legal process, failing to meet them leads to many legal malpractice claims. In fact, studies have consistently shown that missed deadlines are the number one reason for malpractice claims.
When Does a Missed Deadline Become Legal Malpractice?
Not every missed deadline qualifies as malpractice. Missing minor deadlines may not affect your case at all, in fact. The key question is whether or not the missed deadline caused real, measurable harm to the outcome of your case. To bring a successful legal malpractice claim in California, you must prove that your lawyer’s failure to meet the deadline satisfies the 4 elements of negligence:
- Duty: Your lawyer had a professional obligation to represent you competently.
- Breach: They breached that duty by acting negligently, such as missing a mandatory deadline.
- Causation: The breach directly caused harm, such as losing or diminishing the value of your case.
- Damages: You suffered a financial loss as a result of the missed deadline.
For example, if your attorney missed the statute of limitations on your personal injury case, and you lost the right to sue, this could be considered malpractice. In this case, a legal malpractice lawyer could sue your negligent lawyer by proving that your original case could have easily been won. This would demonstrate that you missed out on significant funds needed for your recovery, which you would have been rewarded if it weren’t for your lawyer’s shortcomings.
5 Steps to Protect Yourself if Your Lawyer Missed a Deadline
If you suspect your attorney has missed an important deadline, here are 5 steps you can take to ensure your rights are protected. Remember that acting quickly and carefully is important.
1. Confirm What Was Missed
Communicate with your lawyer and get clarity on the specific deadline involved. Was it a statute of limitations, a court filing, or a procedural requirement? What steps will they take to remedy the situation? Give your lawyer a chance to explain, and ask for documentation, such as court records or case updates, to confirm. If they are confident that they can fix the issue without hurting your case, you may not be in danger. If they are vague or evasive in their response, this warrants healthy concern.
2. Get a Second Opinion
If your lawyer’s response (or lack thereof) is unacceptable, consult another attorney. Specifically, you should contact a lawyer who specializes in legal malpractice and ask them to review your case. A fresh perspective will help you understand whether your rights have been compromised and what options remain. If the missed deadline has harmed your case, you may decide to hire a new attorney who can better handle the issue.
3. Gather Evidence
Preserve all emails, contracts, court documents, and communications with your lawyer. This documentation is critical if you later pursue a malpractice claim or file a formal complaint. Moreover, if you hire a new attorney during step 2, this evidence may help them convince the court to extend the deadline or forgive your original lawyer’s neglect.
4. Consider a Malpractice Claim
If your lawyer’s negligence has caused you measurable harm, you may be entitled to compensation. A legal malpractice lawsuit can help you recover the value of the claim you lost, along with other damages. To do this, you need to hire a legal malpractice attorney who can skillfully demonstrate your original lawyer’s negligence while also re-trying the underlying case.
5. File a Complaint with the State Bar
If your lawyer’s conduct fell below professional standards, you can also file a complaint with the California State Bar. This won’t compensate you for your losses, but it can hold the attorney accountable, and may lead to disciplinary action. This step is important both for your own peace of mind and to help protect future clients from similar negligence.
What Compensation Can You Recover?
The goal of proving legal malpractice is to place you in the position you would have been in if the lawyer had handled your case competently. Pursuing and winning a legal malpractice suit can greatly benefit you and essentially save your lost case.
Here are some things that can be recovered via a legal malpractice case:
- The Value of Your Lost Claim: If your case was worth $500,000, for example, but was dismissed due to a missed deadline, you may seek that amount in damages against your former attorney.
- Additional Costs and Fees: If your legal malpractice lawyer wins the case, you can potentially recover the money you paid to the negligent lawyer and the fees paid to other counsel you hired to fix their mistake.
We Can Help Protect Your Rights
Did your lawyer miss an important deadline and botch your case, or cause you financial harm? If so, you have come to the right place. At Stalwart Law Group, we fight to ease the pain and stress that comes with being let down by a professional who swore to protect you. We welcome the opportunity to try negligent and malicious lawyers who undermine the legal system, and we take these cases very seriously.
Our team can evaluate your situation, explain your options, and fight to recover the compensation you deserve. Legal malpractice claims require a very specific set of legal skills and strategy, and our lawyers have triumphed in many cases by righting the wrongs of incompetent attorneys.
If your lawyer missed a critical deadline, don’t follow in their footsteps and miss your chance to recover. Contact Stalwart Law Group today for a free case evaluation.
