Can I initiate a legal malpractice lawsuit if my lawyer failed to file paperwork on time?
It is difficult to win a legal malpractice lawsuit. A client will need to establish several factors in order to prevail. The most common type of legal malpractice occurs because of negligence, the breach of a fiduciary duty, or a breach of contract. The failure to file paperwork by a deadline is a form of negligence. To establish legal malpractice under negligence, it is necessary to demonstrate the following: • The lawyer owed a duty to provide competent and skillful representation; • The lawyer breached the duty by acting carelessly or by making a mistake; • The lawyer’s breach caused an injury or harm; • The harm caused a financial loss. To win a legal malpractice claim, it is also necessary to show that if the lawyer had been competent the client would have prevailed in the underlying case and the client would have been able to collect the damage award from the defendant. This element, known as causation, is often the most difficult to prove in a legal malpractice lawsuit.
