Posts tagged Legal Malpractice

• Tax Liability Arising Due to Confidentiality Clauses in Settlement Agreements

  Geoff Trachtenberg | May 10, 2007 9:40 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  Did you know that a confidentiality clause can have tax consequences? This was the subject of a United States Tax Court opinion in Amos v. IRS (2003), the case where Dennis Rodman kicked a courtside TV cameraman in the groin.The Court held that, if a portion of a settlement is attributable to a confidentiality agreement, that portion is taxable. It is not clear what the long-term effects are...

• Ethical Rules and Their Application in Legal Malpractice Cases

  Geoff Trachtenberg | May 02, 2007 9:18 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Miscellaneous
  

  Lawyers are governed by a comprehensive set of ethical rules which, when violated, often lead to civil liability regardless of the ethical violation (e.g., stealing from clients), but what impact does a rule violation have on legal malpractice or other claims against a lawyer? Arizona's ethical rules contain the following Preamble: Violation of a Rule should not itself give rise to a cause of...

• Arizona Civil Jury Verdicts for 2006

  Geoff Trachtenberg | April 27, 2007 1:56 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Automobile Accidents
  

  The numbers are out for civil jury verdicts and they are not pretty. Indeed, they are generally very low and, since they include commercial cases in the average (which can skew the numbers quite a lot), we pay more attention to the median numbers.2006 Reported Arizona VerdictsAverages vs. Medians {mso-displayed-decimal-separator:"\\."; mso-displayed-thousand-separator:"\\,";}@page {margin:1.0in...

• The Basics of Legal Malpractice

  Geoff Trachtenberg | April 24, 2007 10:14 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Miscellaneous
  

  The essence of legal malpractice is to show that a lawyer improperly did, or failed to do, something specific that, had the lawyer done properly, would have resulted in a measurably better outcome. Sounds simple enough, but it gets more complicated in practice.First, consider the specific act or omission. It's not enough to say a lawyer "did not do a good enough job." You need something...

• Is a Medical Malpractice Claim "Mature" If There Is No Present Injury?

  Geoff Trachtenberg | April 19, 2007 8:57 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  As a rule, every medical malpractice claim must have four elements -- duty, breach, causation and damages -- and, at least as a general rule, you need all of them to have a cognizable claim. Sometimes, however, there can be an issue as to when a claim is "mature," i.e., complete or ripe.Take, for example, a person who has an increased risk of disease because he has been exposed to a defective...

• Legal Malpractice and Nondelegable Duties -- When Can a Lawyer Be Held Accountable for the Negligence of an Independent Contractor?

  Geoff Trachtenberg | April 12, 2007 9:57 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Miscellaneous
  

  We recently filed suit in a case where a lawyer himself did nothing wrong, but hired an independent contractor to file a lawsuit -- that is, a process server. The process server negligently failed to file the lawsuit on time and, as a result, the lawsuit was time-barred. Worse, the process server was uninsured.Most people know that employers are generally liable for the negligence of their...

• Legal Malpractice and The One Million Dollar Comma

  Geoff Trachtenberg | April 10, 2007 8:45 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Miscellaneous
  

  As in many legal malpractice matters, the "devil is in the details," but rarely does a dispute center around the use of a "comma," but that was the case in a recent Canadian contract dispute:The dispute is over this sentence: "This agreement shall be effective from the date it is made and shall continue in force for a period of five (5) years from the date it is made, and thereafter for...

• Legal Malpractice and Breach of Fiduciary Duty

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 31, 2007 9:46 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Miscellaneous
  

  Many people do not understand the difference between legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty.Legal malpractice arises when an attorney owes someone a duty of care and, by an act or omission, the attorney's conduct breaches that duty of care and causes that person cognizable harm. While the "person" harmed is typically a client, an attorney-client relationship is not required and legal...

• Legal Malpractice Can Be a Function of Minutes

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 29, 2007 8:39 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Miscellaneous
  

  Attorneys know that deadlines matter, but in this age of electronic filing and 24-hour drop boxes it was just a matter of time before a court would have to address a filing that was, say, a mere six minutes late. That is what the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit had to deal with and this is what they had to say about it:Six minutes seems trivial and unlikely to cause...

• Negligence of an Independent Contractor

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 21, 2007 9:25 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Miscellaneous
  

  Most attorneys hire outside companies to handle filing and serving lawsuits. What happens when these process servers mess up and, as a result, you cannot pursue your lawsuit?We have a case like that right now. About one week before the statute of limitations ran, our client's former attorney prepared a lawsuit and sent it to be filed with the Court. Although the attorney's staff followed up...