Legal Malpractice Answers: Fort Lauderdale – West Palm Beach – Miami What is legal malpractice?
“Malpractice” denotes the failure of professional services to reflect a minimum standard of competence. As in every profession, the people who render professional services must be competent in their respective fields. Similarly, a lawyer has an obligation to use the skill, prudence and diligence that would be exercised by a lawyer of ordinary skill and capacity under similar circumstances. This is called the “standard of care.” When a lawyer’s counseling falls below the expected standard of care, it is called “legal malpractice.” The three major theories of liability for legal malpractice are negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract. Of those three, negligence is the most common theory of liability used in malpractice cases.
