When you engage the professional services of an attorney, it usually is an indication that you are involved in a situation that is beyond your scope of expertise. You hire a lawyer, hoping that he or she will help resolve the issue. In the greatest majority of cases this is exactly what happens, but what recourse do you have if your lawyer makes things worse, not better? If you can prove a number of points you can sue, hopefully the lawyer will have legal malpractice insurance in Texas otherwise, even if you win the lawsuit, it may be difficult to collect any award.
Duty: Your lawyer has a duty to you; he or she is obliged to provide you with proper legal representation. You can only sue your lawyer; the lawyer for the other side owes you nothing.
Standard of care: Of course, you hope that the lawyer you hired is the best. Even if he or she is not the best it does mean that you deserve representation, even if what you get is at a low level. If you hire a lawyer and the lawyer does not do a good job, this does not mean that the standard of care has been violated; being bad does not mean the lawyer is guilty of malpractice.
Damages: You must have suffered damages. If, for example, the lawyer missed the statute of limitations, but your case had no chance of success; there is no malpractice. Of course, the reverse is true, if the statute of limitations was missed and you had a good case, then there is a case for legal malpractice.
As well as duty, standard of care and damages you will need an expert witness that will confirm that the standard of care was indeed violated, the expert witness is another lawyer that practices in the same area of expertise that your lawyer does.
The lawyer that you are suing hopefully will carry legal malpractice insurance in Texas; otherwise it may prove difficult to collect any damages.
Lawyers are not required to carry legal malpractice insurance in Texas. If you feel you have been wronged by your lawyer you can sue, with or without insurance. You are invited to discuss your case with The Kassab Law Firm. Follow us on twitter.
