What Qualifies as Legal Malpractice?

Generally, for legal malpractice to be established, the following components must be present:

• Existence of a duty. Lawyers owe a duty to their clients to exercise reasonable care and avoid foreseeable harm in the performance of their work.
• Breach of such duty. Falling below the standard of care that would be used by other lawyers in handling a similar matter.
• Damages or harm. The client must have sustained harm as a result of the breach.
• Causality. The breach must have been the direct cause of the harm suffered by the client.

Examples of situations that could trigger malpractice claims include:

• Fraud, dishonesty, or misrepresentation
• Providing poor or wrong legal advice
• Failure to know or apply the relevant law
• Procedural, administrative, or planning errors
• Poor drafting of legal documents or financial agreements
• Procrastination, delays, or missing deadlines
• Failure to obtain client consent
• Poor investigation or discovery
• Suing the wrong party
• Source