Providing legal services to someone involves more than just knowing the law and having the ability to argue in court or negotiate in the boardroom. A lawyer also needs to manage all of the details of their clients’ legal affairs and provide them with a basic standard of representation.
Unfortunately, as with any industry, there are attorneys who currently have a legal practice that do not offer their clients appropriate services and counsel. In some cases, attorneys can make mistakes, ranging from not knowing law and precedent to failing to file necessary paperwork, that can directly impact the likelihood of their clients exceeding in court.
If you lost a lawsuit or wound up convicted of a criminal offense in part because your attorney failed to take you some basic but necessary action, you may have grounds for a legal malpractice suit against your former attorney.
Negligence and professional failures can constitute malpractice
Simply receiving a ruling that you don’t like from the courts doesn’t indicate that you’ve experienced legal malpractice. However, if your attorney wasn’t adequately familiar with the area of law in which they attempted to represent you or if they made basic mistakes that other attorneys would not have made, you may be able to claim that negligence on their part directly affected your legal rights and the outcome of your case.
You may be able to take the attorney to court in order to seek repayment of the fees you provided to them and even compensation for secondary financial losses you incurred because of their inadequate or negligent legal representation.
Examples of negligence or inappropriate oversights could include failing to file necessary paperwork by a deadline, failing to show up to court on a scheduled date, failing to review evidence, legal statutes or precedent before representing you or even arriving to court while under the influence of drugs or alcohol that impacted the attorney’s ability to do their job.
Victims of attorney negligence may have numerous consequences to deal with because of their bungled legal matter, which is why a legal malpractice lawsuit might be a good option for people in this unpleasant situation.