Los Angeles Legal Malpractice Attorneys

Filing Legal Malpractice Claims for Transactional Errors

Attorneys are an instrumental part of almost every major business transaction. Attorneys must also attend to all of the details of each contract, address contingencies, and provide accurate, timely counsel as to potential risks. When lawyers fail in these duties, clients can face needless exposure and suffer staggering financial losses.

In many cases, an attorney’s failure rises to the level of legal malpractice. If you or your business faces the prospect of severe financial loss due to an attorneys’ malpractice, it is important that you talk to a lawyer about your options. At Greene Broillet & Wheeler, LLP, our Los Angeles lawyers can represent individuals and businesses that have suffered extensive financial harm due to legal malpractice and transactional errors.

Call (866) 634-4525 or contact us online to request more information about our services in Southern California and nationwide. 

When Transactional Errors Are Considered Malpractice

In legal malpractice, transactional errors can encompass a wide range of negligent actions, including:

• Making errors in documentation and drafting
• Violations of fiduciary duty
• Failure of due diligence
• Failing to disclose terms and conditions that could harm the client

Simply reaching a poor outcome in a business transaction does not necessarily constitute malpractice. Legal malpractice only occurs when a lawyer breaches his or her standard of acceptable care. Further, you must be able to prove that you suffered financial harm as a result of this breach.

In any legal malpractice claim, a lawyer’s very reputation is on the line. Even if your former lawyer’s conduct was far below the accepted standard of care, your lawyer will likely expend significant effort attempting to prove otherwise. At Greene Broillet & Wheeler, LLP, you can trust that our Los Angeles law firm will provide tenacious, thorough legal representation on your behalf.

Legal Malpractice Can Cause Extensive Losses

When you hire a lawyer, you expect them to represent your interests and protect your rights. In some rare instances, however, a lawyer can make a serious judgment error or even intentionally engage in misconduct, harming a client in the process.

Legal malpractice can either occur in the context oflitigation or intransactional work. The textbook example of litigation malpractice is failing to file a claim before the statute of limitation expires. Examples of transactional malpractice include producing defective documents or failing to properly advise clients.

Like other professionals, if lawyers were afraid of legal action for any degree of human error, we could not do our jobs and represent clients properly. However, certain acts and omissions are serious enough that they rise to the level of professional malpractice.

The following are some of the most common forms of legal malpractice:

• Failing to properly know or apply the law
• Breach of fiduciary duty
• Errors in planning or preparation
• Inadequate discovery or investigation
• Failure to file documents
• Failure to properly meet calendar deadlines
• Failure to know deadlines
• Procrastination of a case
• Failure to obtain a client’s consent before taking certain actions
• Having a conflict of interest
• Engaging in fraud
• Failing to follow instructions
• Errors in records searches
• Improper withdrawal from a case
• Libel or slander against a client
• Causing civil rights violations
• Causing adverse tax consequences for clients
• Serious mathematical errors
• Losing files or documents

As you can see, legal malpractice may occur due to unintentional but serious errors, careless and avoidable mistakes, or intentional acts of fraud or self-serving breaches of fiduciary duty. No matter how minor or severe the act seems, legal malpractice has the potential to result in millions of dollars in losses.

Proving Complex Legal Malpractice Claims

Simply losing your case or arriving at what you consider an unjust result is not malpractice. Instead, specific legal standards identify malpractice.

To prove a legal malpractice claim, an attorney must prove the following overarching issues:

1. A valid attorney-client relationship
2. Negligent acts or representation by the lawyer
3. Losses stemming from the negligent act of representation

Proving the first element can involve obtaining a representation agreement signed by both the client and attorney. However, an agreement does not always need to exist for an attorney-client relationship to form. In some situations, an attorney’s actions or reactions can imply a relationship. If a lawyer’s representations gave the client the reasonable belief that an attorney-client relationship existed, that can obligate a lawyer to owe the client the required duty of care. Our attorneys carefully examine the actions of both lawyers and clients to determine whether a relationship existed.

The second element involves the complex matter of proving that a lawyer’s actions constituted negligence.

Legal negligence involves:

• That the lawyer breached the standard of care
• That this breach of duty caused harm to the client
• That the client accrued damages because of the malpractice

As mentioned, not every mistake constitutes negligence under the law. Instead, a lawyer must breach the standard of care required in the legal profession. Simply put, this standard is to exercise the skill, care, and diligence that other similarly trained attorneys in the community would exercise in similar circumstances.

If a lawyer chooses a legal approach or strategy in good faith, and other attorneys at that time and in that situation would find that strategy reasonable, it does not constitute legal malpractice if the strategy fails to succeed for the client. On the other hand, if a lawyer decides to take a wildly unorthodox approach in a case that another reasonably prudent lawyer would never take, the attorney may incur liability for malpractice if the attorney loses the client’s case.

This is only one of many examples of how a lawyer may breach the duty of care. Breach of duty may also occur due to violations of Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers in California, violation of federal or state criminal law, and similar wrongful acts.

After establishing evidence of a breach of duty, the next step is to demonstrate that the breach led to the losses of the client. We often show that if the attorney had acted in the right manner, the client would likely have prevailed in a case or could have avoided a costly mishap. We also know how to calculate the full amount of damages appropriate in every legal malpractice case to ensure our clients receive the maximum compensation they deserve

Why You Can Trust Our Firm

As a victim of litigation malpractice, it only makes sense that you may feel wary of other attorneys. However, our lawyers dedicate ourselves to providing only the highest quality of representation in each case we accept. We always do everything in our power to ensure that our clients receive the full amount they deserve. Our Los Angeles law firm is able to regularly achieve such success for our clients because of our experience, resources, and reputation.

Legal malpractice claims often require an extensive investigation into the lawyer’s actions with regard to the botched matter. Our high-value successes result in substantial resources for future clients, including an in-house investigation team that understands how to gather evidence in legal malpractice claims.

Evidence can vary depending on the nature of the malpractice, but can include:

• Attorney-client agreements
• Attorney case records
• Court records
• Communications between an attorney and client
• Opinions and testimony of legal experts

Legal malpractice cases are different from other injury cases because the defendant will be another law firm. Law firms and their insurers know about the laws that govern these claims, and often have the skills to fight against liability. However, our reputation for success precedes us, and other lawyers know we mean business the moment we walk into a settlement conference or courtroom. They know we fully understand the law and thoroughly investigate and prepare in every case. Our reputation allows us to face opposing counsel from the strongest possible vantage point and often leverage the outcome to our client’s favor.

Successfully Handling Multi-Million Dollar Legal Malpractice Claims

Our attorneys represent both people and businesses that suffered serious damages because of lawyer negligence. Professional negligence can come in many forms and cause a wide range of damages. In some cases, negligence can lead to millions of dollars in losses for a business or individual client. With so much on the line, you need a law firm in your corner that regularly proves high-value legal malpractice claims.

At Greene, Broillet & Wheeler, LLP, we want all of our peers in the legal field to thrive and provide the assistance we pledged to provide for clients. When an attorney failed to do so, we are ready to help you recover for the full amount of their losses.

We’re here to help with filing a legal malpractice claim. Call (866) 634-4525 or message us online today.