Did you feel like your attorney wasn’t necessarily working for you? Did you wonder if they really had your best interests at heart?
If you’re asking these questions, you may want to consider whether or not your attorney had a conflict of interest. This is most important if you already lost the case, after thinking you should win, and now you think they may have lost that case on purpose.
Conflict of interest is a term often used in the business world, and it just defines a situation where a person’s own interests do not line up with the good of the company. This same thing can happen in a legal setting when an attorney has other interests beyond the client’s interests.
For instance, maybe you were injured by a defective product made by a local company. You wanted to sue that company for compensation. There was clearly a design flaw. After some mistakes by your legal team, though, the court ruled against you. They said that you had no case and could not prove that the company put you in danger.
Then you find out that your attorney’s sister-in-law is the one who owns the company. Did your attorney really want you to win the case, or did they want their sister-in-law to protect their investment and their business moving forward?
If this type of thing has happened to you, it may constitute legal malpractice. You deserved far better from your lawyer. Make sure you know what options you still have after the fact.