Discerning The Differences Between an Honest Mistake and Legal Malpractice

Discerning The Differences Between an Honest Mistake and Legal Malpractice

Everyone has something they are good at, and everyone needs help at some point. When someone is a master of their field, people will trust them to perform well in that respective field. Trusting a professional is oftentimes the only choice one has, and it can come as devastating when the professional you trusted is causing damages or causing harm due to negligence or recklessness. If you have experienced legal malpractice, it can be costly and infuriating. Fortunately, there is proper legal help to recover or restore any damages and harms incurred due to the lawyer.

Legal malpractice occurs when a lawyer fails to fulfill a promise or simply does not do what they are supposed to do, causing damage to the client. In addition, lawyers have an ethical standard to live up to,and if they do not abide by these professional conducts, they may be sued for legal malpractice.

HOW IS MALPRACTICE IDENTIFIED?

Legal malpractice is properly identified and proven by careful coordination and organization of information. Because not every mistake is malpractice, it is important to identify properly the origin of the problem.

Common examples of malpractice include the following: taking a case with no experience in that field. Failing to meet deadlines, as well as being inconsistent with details and miscommunication, are all clear signs of a lack of professionalism, but more appropriately, failure to perform their duties as attorney.

Malpractice is determined by a series of proven events that transpired, leading to one incurring damages or harm. The first element to prove is that you and the attorney entered an attorney-client relationship. Most commonly this can be proved with official documents provided throughout the process of their representing you.

Secondly, typically, there must be evidence through an expert in the field at issue, that a reasonably qualified lawyer would not have performed the way your lawyer had, whether by negligence or by intentional actions. Many times a lawyer will act in good faith, commit an error, and cost the case. While unfortunate, it can and does happen.

The third element is to prove that had the lawyer not been negligent or acted intentionally in some way, that the case would have likely gone favorably. Take, for example, bringing to light an attorney’s lateness with deadlines that cost the case.

Finally one must identify what their material or immaterial damages and harm amount to. Once this has all been accounted for, your malpractice attorney has much higher odds of assisting you in retrieving what you had lost.

Betrayed trust is never easy to handle. At a point where you were let down by an attorney, it may seem near impossible to want to hire and trust another, and understandably so. Negligence or deliberate recklessness can leave a lasting impression and leave even graver implications for those affected by malpractice. Know, however, that at King & Jones, our Chicago legal malpractice attorneys will put our best foot forward when helping you with such delicate cases. If you have any questions, or would like to voice your concerns, please have confidence contacting our team today at 312-372-4142.