Legal malpractice may not
involve physical harm, but it’s still a form of personal injury. You’ve been
harmed, often emotional and sometimes financially, as a result of poor advice
from a lawyer, whom you expected to help out with your legal issues. Three
things can happen here: you lose your money, you lose your case or both.
Your situation with a lawyer
that failed you might not be as uncommon as you think. Here are the most common
malpractice claims based on data gathered by the American Bar Association.
Failure
to Know or Apply Law
Based on claims filed between
2000 and 2007, 11.3 percent of them were on the grounds that the lawyer failed
to realize known legal facts or misinterpreted them. Research should be one of your
lawyer’s strongest points, with attention to detail being second to none.
Courts warn that lack of research is a strong evidence of incompetence.
Planning
Error
Nearly 9 percent of legal
malpractice claims were attributed to failure to plan on how to tackle a
certain case. Representing a client’s best interests requires strategy on the
lawyer’s part. If the case doesn’t result in at least an amicable settlement,
the client may be quick to suspect incompetence.
Inadequate
Investigation
Cases demand nothing but the
truth. Lawyers must conduct their own inquiries into a matter to determine the
best approach for the client’s case.
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