Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP brings this discussion of a NJ legal malpractice case. Here, defendant attorney hid the dismissal of plaintiff’s case from them for 9 years. They are due not only a positive statute of limitations decision, but a “spoliation” of evidence outcome. Details below

Plaintiffs Entitled to Spoliation Instruction Against Defendant — Attorney Who Did Not Destroy Evidence But Concealed Dismissal of Underlying Case for Nine Years

Jerista v. Murray,185 N.J. 175, 883 A.2d 350 (N.J. 2005)

“The defendant, who represented an injured customer and her husband in a negligence lawsuit against a supermarket for an injury caused by an automatic door, concealed the dismissal of the underlying tort claim, and thus his own negligence, for nine years. By the time this concealment came to an end, evidence regarding the fault of the underlying tort defendant was either lost or destroyed. Plaintiffs claimed they could have prevailed in the underlying case under the res ipsa loquitur doctrine, and defendant argued to the contrary. Among other things, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that if, in fact, plaintiffs could make a threshold showing that the defendant’s concealment of the dismissal led to the loss or destruction of relevant evidence, the jury would be entitled to infer that the missing evidence would have assisted plaintiffs’ case.”