A single motorcycle accident spawned a plethora of lawsuits, and now, an appeal to the Supreme Court of West Virginia. Attorneys collected money in each matter, but the last was sued for legal malpractice for not collecting enough. Plaintiff lost at the trial level, and now argues that defendant could have collected more. Details.

Reported today in the NYLJ, plaintiff won a discrimination case. Now the battle has ranged into a legal fees dispute with her attorney. Even on the verge of winning, plaintiff herself has been sanctioned $5000 by Justice Acosts of Supreme Court, New York County for a series of ex-parte faxes. “A Manhattan judge has sanctioned a pro se plaintiff $5,000 for “contumacious conduct” after she inundated the court with ex parte communications concerning a dispute with her former lawyer.””In an Aug. 10 ruling, Justice Acosta awarded Ms. Jordan $257,428 in attorney’s fees and Mr. Lebowitz $205,410. He then sanctioned Ms. Jordan.

“Although plaintiff has been proceeding pro se in the attorneys fees portion of this litigation, the Court can no longer ignore her conduct nor excuse it by plaintiff’s personal circumstances or her frustrating ten-year battle with defendants,” Justice Acosta wrote in Jordan v. Bates Advertising, 118783/99.”

Details.

We reported on this case a short while ago. Plaintiff had her med mal case discontinued without permission, and then when she started a legal malpractice case, was told that her attorney was disciplined, only allowed to participate in mental hygiene cases and penniless. She settled the case for
$ 2000 only to find out that he had just been paid $ 94,000 by the state for his mental hygiene work. Now she is starting a public campaign in WVa for some form of compulsory legal malpractice insurance. Details.

Judge Squire, running in an election this year in Columbus, OH, is facing ethcial and judicial conduct charges. They will not be resolved until after the election. Of interest to this blog is the legal malpractice/judicial misconduct policy of $ 25,000 per claim. That amount seems woefully low. In her case there are 4 charges, thus $ 100,000 in coverage…and she has worked her way through already. Details.

Reporting again from the Madison County Record, here is an automobile legal malpractice case. “Two people involved in an auto accident in 2002 claim legal malpractice in a lawsuit filed against their former attorney and law firm.

According to the complaint filed Aug. 17 in St. Clair County Circuit Court, Sidney and LaToi Williams sustained neck and back injuries in an accident on Dec. 21, 2002, in Fairview Heights.

The Williams, represented by Thomas C. Rich of Fairview Heights, claim attorney Lisa Pennock and the firm Dixon & Johnston failed to properly and timely file a complaint for comparative negligence against the driver responsible for the accident.” Details

Imputation Doctrine No Longer Shields Negligent Auditors
Shareholders may sue accountants for negligent failure to detect fraud

Stephen V. Falanga
New Jersey Law Journal
August 30, 2006

“The New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision in NCP Litigation Trust v. KPMG, LLP, may dramatically affect the relationship between corporations and their outside auditors. The case, decided June 28, altered the legal landscape in New Jersey by holding that shareholders of defunct corporations may now pursue third party actions against the company’s accountants for negligent failure to detect fraud of corporate principals.” Details

“Minneapolis law firm Dorsey & Whitney breached its fiduciary duty of client loyalty by representing two clients on opposite sides of related cases and withheld from the clients that it may have committed legal malpractice during the Miller & Schroeder Investments bankruptcy case several years ago, a federal judge ruled this week. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher ordered the firm to surrender $887,444 in related legal fees.” Details

Could be the largest group of plaintiffs in a legal malpractice case. Defendant law firm represented health insurer. “The jury found Fillenwarth Dennerline liable for failing to notify the health plan’s trustees of its growing financial losses. The now-defunct plan, the Indiana Construction Industry Trust, was set up by about a dozen construction-related companies to cover their nonunion employees.”

“The verdict, by a Marion Circuit Court jury after a six-day trial, amounts to a potentially crippling financial blow for the 43-year-old Eastside firm Fillenwarth Dennerline Groth & Towe, known for its labor law practice.” Details