The practice of law is a lot like the practice of medicine. The professionals with the most authority also have to endure the most education in order to reach that position. Lawyers, like medical doctors, are subject to intensive graduate school requirements, an exhaustive examination process and state licensing to practice in their field.
Just like medical professionals, attorneys can also find themselves facing allegations of professional malpractice. While legal malpractice doesn’t often have the immediate health consequences that medical malpractice can, it can still distinctly alter the course of someone’s life and hurt them severely.
Some legal malpractice stems from a lack of dedicated knowledge
If you have a growth on your brain, your family doctor serves the sole purpose of referring you on to a neurologist or oncologist who specializes in this kind of tumor. The same kind of experience occurs in the legal industry, and it’s important for many of the same reasons.
Not every lawyer can understand every different area of law thoroughly. The more complex your legal case is, the more defined the knowledge that you’ll require from your attorney. Unfortunately, unlike in medicine, there are many lawyers who are basically general practitioners that might try to pass themselves off as experienced in the hope of a major windfall or securing a client.
Understanding specifics is a part of legal competence
Incompetent representation is one of the many reasons that people can bring a legal malpractice claim against their attorney. Incompetence doesn’t just mean failing to perform the basics of the job but rather not having adequate knowledge or experience for a specific case.
If your attorney’s lack of understanding of the law or precedent affected the outcome in your case because a more experienced or knowledgeable attorney could have represented you better, you may be able to hold your lawyer responsible for the damage done to your life.