Here is a short reprint of a California case where the case was too old before the attorneys even saw it for the first time. “The plaintiff in a toxic mold lawsuit had no viable malpractice claim against her lawyers over their settlement of her case, since her cause of action was time-barred before she consulted them, the Third District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday.

The court affirmed Sacramento Superior Court Judge Loren E. McMaster’s order dismissing a legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit against Sacramento attorneys Morton L. Friedman and C. Brooks Cutter.” Full article

Lok Lau, who was formerly an undercover FBI agent, was fired. He appears to have been swept up in other criminal proceedings, and hired defendant attorney to sue for employment discrimination. He lost and now sues. “A former FBI special agent who was fired by the bureau after spending years undercover in the late 1980s and early 1990s in a highly classified role spying on China may soon get his day in court: with his former attorney.
Lau filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against the Department of Justice in the wake of getting the boot by the FBI some six years ago. That case was subsequently dismissed and Lau’s appeal was unsuccessful.

But Lau’s lawsuit against DOJ was not your normal, run-of-the-mill wrongful termination case. The attorney he hired to battle the DOJ, as a result, had to be on top of his legal game. Lau claims he was not, which Lau argues cost him the case.

Lau’s attorney at the time, Antonio V. Silva of El Paso, disagrees, and now contends that the court dismissed Lau’s case because it lacked merit.” Full Narcosphere blog.

In Choctaw County, Alabama, this attorney is running, unopposed, for a judgeship. Nevertheless, he now is on trial for legal malpractice. Details. “Democratic nominee and apparent circuit judge-elect Stuart C. DuBose will be in court in Mobile County Oct. 2, facing charges of legal malpractice and other improprieties regarding the estate of a deceased Washington County man.

A jury trial is slated before Judge John Lockett in the estate contest of the late Joseph L. Sullivan. The case was moved to Mobile County from Washington County in June after DuBose won the Democratic nomination for a circuit judgeship in the First Judicial Circuit of Choctaw, Clarke and Washington counties in the June 7 primary. Judge Lockett said he moved the case because he didn’t want to give the perception to Washington County jurors that there were “two judges in the courtroom” if DuBose was tried in Chatom.

DuBose has no opposition in the November general election and will take office in January.” Details.

This is a case [Agate v. Herrick Feinstein, NYLJ 9/20/06, York. J] with fairly far-reaching effects. Plaintiff arbitrated a securities case, and the arbitration went badly. Plaintiff thought he should have been awarded several millions of dollars yet received only several hundred thousand dollars in award, paying almost that much in legal fees. The kicker? The arbitrators gave the award with no explanation, and plaintiff’s legal malpractice case had no foundation upon which to build. In other words, this lawsuit was dead upon arrival, because plaintiff could not prove why the arbitrators gave so little. Contrast this with a case in which a judge renders a decision, or a jury grants an award upon a special verdict. Agate had no basis upon which to assert that some failing by defendant caused the arbitrator’s decision.

The greater import of this case, other than the individual loss or loss of others engaged in this arbitration, is that when a case is arbitrated, there may be no recourse to legal malpractice, even if the mistakes appear self evident.

As a reminder of the real-world consequences of legal representation, here is a Oklahoma case. Plaintiff is the wife of a man who was apparently taunted at work so badly that he committed suicide. They had hired defendant attorney to get his employment to stop the harrassment. No suit was filed, and after the suicide, no wrongful death action was filed. Legal malpractice, and this appellate decision, which allows for emotional damages, and no offset for the eventual wrongful death recovery issued. Full decision.

“Accused of malpractice, former Geneva Steel lead attorney Stephen Garcia is firing back at the company’s Chapter 11 trustee.
Late last month, Garcia asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Utah to levy more than $1 million in sanctions against the trustee’s attorney for making baseless accusations.
James T. Markus, appointed Geneva Steel’s Chapter 11 trustee in April 2005, has asked the court to force Garcia and the Chicago law firm for which he worked to return more than $2.4 million in legal fees collected for his representation of the company.” Full Article

Just a reminder, and a re-print from the Kellner’s, from the Law Journal. New deposition rules start October 1, 2006. “The deposition is probably the most useful discovery tool in civil litigation. However, it has always been necessary to strike a balance in its use between open and expansive discovery and appropriate limitations so as to protect witnesses from improper questions. In recent cases, the courts have expressed frustration at being called upon to resolve specious objections and curtail plainly improper obstruction of depositions. In an effort to correct certain abuses in the conduct of depositions, the Uniform Rules for the Trial Courts have been amended to add a new section containing rules for the conduct of depositions in the state courts. This section, Part 221: Uniform Rules for the Conduct of Depositions will take effect on Oct. 1, 2006. These rules augment the CPLR by addressing issues of continuing concern”