Like working with any professional, hiring an attorney is an act of trust. We have faith that they will serve us with a professional level of care and that we can rely on their advice. As we enter into the attorney-client relationship, we expect that they will safeguard our interests, fight for our rights, and guide us through the legal system effectively.
But what happens when your attorney lets you down and fails to provide adequate representation? Maybe you lost your case under suspicious circumstances, or your lawyer’s actions left you worse off than when you started. Sometimes, these scenarios are the result of legal malpractice: when a lawyer breaches their duty of care to a client and causes harm as a result.
The question of what constitutes legal malpractice involves subtle distinctions. It’s not the same as losing a case or disagreeing with your attorney, though these can be warning signs. This guide will help you understand legal malpractice in California, how to spot it, how to tell what is not legal malpractice, and what you should do if you’ve hired a negligent attorney.
Elements of Legal Malpractice in California
In California, legal malpractice occurs when a lawyer fails to perform their duties at the standard of care expected of any competent lawyer, resulting in harm to their client. In other words, if your attorney fails to meet the rules of professional conduct outlined by the State Bar of California and causes damages to you, you have the right to sue for legal malpractice.
In malpractice cases, the burden of proof is on the plaintiff, who must demonstrate that malpractice more likely than not occurred. Specifically, pursuing a legal malpractice lawsuit in California requires that you prove the 4 key elements of professional negligence. Understanding these elements will help you determine if your situation warrants a legal malpractice claim.
1. Duty of Care (The Attorney-Client Relationship)
From the moment your attorney agrees to represent you, they owe you a duty of care. This duty means the attorney must act competently, diligently, and with the utmost good faith toward you. Establishing this duty is usually straightforward. If you signed a retainer agreement or paid legal fees, you likely have evidence of this relationship. This step is crucial because a lawyer owes a duty of care to their clients.
2. Breach of Duty (Negligence or Misconduct)
After establishing that the attorney owed you a duty of care, you must prove that they breached that duty. This means demonstrating your lawyer acted in a way that a reasonably competent attorney would not have. Breaches can range from obvious mistakes, like missing a filing deadline, to more subtle failures, like misinterpreting the law. Unethical behavior and intentional misconduct can also serve as a breach of duty.
3. Causation (The Attorney’s Actions Caused Harm)
Once your attorney’s breach of duty is established, you must then prove that the breach caused you tangible harm. In other words, you must show a clear and direct connection between the lawyer’s actions (or inactions) and the negative consequences you suffered, such that you would not have suffered them at all if it weren’t for the lawyer’s error. This usually requires strong supporting evidence and testimony from an expert witness.
4. Damages (You Suffered Actual Losses)
The fourth and final element involves showing that you suffered measurable damages as a result of your attorney’s negligence (often referred to as “actual damages”). In legal malpractice cases, this usually means financial loss, such as losing out on a settlement, having to spend money to fix your lawyer’s mistakes, or paying unnecessary legal fees. Without real, quantifiable damages, there is often no cause for a malpractice claim.
The existence of these four elements constitutes legal malpractice in California and forms the basis of any successful claim. If you cannot prove even one of these elements, there will be no record of malpractice, and the lawsuit will not succeed.
The “causation” and “damages” elements are notoriously difficult to prove and require a strong understanding of tort law and knowledge of the underlying case. Any lawyer can be tried for negligence, making legal malpractice as broad as the law itself and encompassing all practice areas. Although it is challenging, a lawyer who is certified in legal malpractice has the skillset to prove causation and recover damages.
Litigation Malpractice vs Transactional Malpractice
Generally speaking, legal malpractice cases are either related to litigation or transactional law.
Litigation malpractice occurs when an attorney’s breach of duty takes place during a lawsuit or court case. This includes errors like failing to file a suit within the statute of limitations, missing a court date, or neglecting to present readily available evidence at trial. For example, if an attorney doesn’t show up at a scheduled court hearing and their absence results in a default judgment against their client, they are almost certainly liable for malpractice.
Transactional malpractice typically involves business, real estate, or personal transactions. This can include situations where an attorney gives a client incorrect advice about potential legal risks, or drafts a contract with terms that end up harming the client financially. A realistic example is if a tax attorney fails to identify a crucial implication in a business agreement and advises their client that moving forward won’t trigger any tax liabilities. When the client later receives unexpected bills from the IRS (the “damages”), the lawyer could be tried for legal malpractice because they failed to apply the law and protect the client’s interests.
Although these are distinct areas of the legal profession, negligence in both litigationand transactional contexts can have major consequences and warrant a legal malpractice claim. In either category, the success of the claim depends on the plaintiff’s ability to prove that negligence occurred and resulted in client damages.
What is NOT Legal Malpractice?
Understandably, many people will be frustrated when a legal case doesn’t go their way, but not every loss or mistake by a lawyer amounts to legal malpractice. Losing a case you thought you’d win, or realizing later that you should have hired a different lawyer, isn’t enough to constitute a valid claim.
The following circumstances shouldn’t be mistaken for legal malpractice:
- Tactical decisions: Lawyers have to make strategic judgment calls, and hiring a lawyer will never guarantee a specific result. A failed legal strategy does not necessarily constitute malpractice unless a grossly unreasonable decision was made.
- Unforeseen outcomes: Sometimes, new evidence emerges that greatly influences a case, or the jury declares an unexpected verdict. Despite your and your attorney’s confidence, a surprising negative outcome does not signal malpractice.
- Disagreements in style or communication: While differences in communication or poor rapport can feel unprofessional, it does not typically rise to the level of malpractice unless a major lapse in communication harms your case.
- Honest mistakes: If your lawyer chooses one strategy over another based on reasonable analysis, an unsuccessful result doesn’t automatically imply malpractice, as long as they exercised sufficient care in their decision.
- Actions or omissions by the client: If the client fails to provide key supporting evidence or disregards their lawyer’s advice, the resulting outcome is generally not the attorney’s fault.
As one can see, the line between legal malpractice and an ordinary failed lawsuit can be subtle. Furthermore, even if malpractice did occur, winning a case still requires the challenge of proving it to a court by demonstrating how the incident fulfills California’s legal definition of negligence. This is all the more reason why hiring a specialized legal malpractice lawyer is paramount to winning your case. Without a holistic understanding of the laws at play and a razor-sharp legal strategy, a winning verdict can easily slip through the cracks.
Statute of Limitations for Filing a Legal Malpractice Claim
Like any other area of the law, one of the most important things to understand about legal malpractice is the applicable statute of limitations, which outlines the legal deadlines and requirements for filing.
In California, you generally have only one year from when you discovered or should have discovered the malpractice, or four years from the date of the wrongful act itself, whichever comes first. There are certain exceptions to this rule, such as when the statute of limitations is “tolled” (extended) until the representation of your original attorney comes to an end, at which point the statute begins to run. Other circumstances, such as fraud or intentional concealment by the attorney, can also extend the time you have to file.
Regardless of specifics that might affect the deadlines for your case, it is strongly recommended that you contact a legal malpractice attorney as soon as you become aware of any misconduct. Many exceptions exist that can affect the statute of limitations, and speaking with a lawyer will help you know exactly how much time you have. As with any case, timing is crucial, and waiting too long can cost you every chance of recovering your damages.
Why Experienced Representation Matters
Proving a legal malpractice claim is a significant feat of strength in the legal profession and is considered a great challenge by attorneys everywhere. These cases demand extensive experience in courtroom strategy, specialized legal skills, and a thorough understanding of the underlying case type–all in addition to a strong background in legal malpractice and tort law. Going even further, a legal malpractice lawyer must be able to anticipate the techniques that a defending attorney will use in court and devise a strategy to outsmart these defenses.
For these reasons, it is imperative that you hire a lawyer who is not only certified in legal malpractice in California but has sufficient experience handling these cases and taking offending attorneys to trial. Partnering with an experienced, reputable attorney who has proven success in this field will greatly increase your chances of recovery.
At Stalwart Law Group, we are proud to offer exceptional representation for victims of attorney negligence and malpractice. Our specialized legal malpractice attorney, Dylan Ruga, has experience litigating these cases across various areas of the law. Through our pursuits in legal malpractice claims, we seek to uphold the ethics of the legal profession and hold attorneys accountable who fail to protect their clients.
If your current or past attorney’s behavior constitutes legal malpractice, don’t risk making the same mistake again. When you partner with Stalwart Law Group, we promise to fight your case and protect your rights to the absolute best of our ability. Contact us today for a free case evaluation and to take the first step toward justice and compensation.
For more information about lawyer malpractice in California and the services we offer, visit our legal malpractice page.
