What Is Legal Malpractice in Indiana?
What is Legal Malpractice?
Legal malpractice, also known as legal negligence or professional liability, occurs when clients have been damaged by their attorney’s actions or inactions, whether by the attorney’s misconduct or failure to use adequate care, skill, and diligence in performance of his/her duties. In other words, the attorney’s representation failed to meet the appropriate standard of care required of a reasonably prudent attorney practicing law in the State of Indiana, and as a result of the attorney’s error, omission, or breach of duty to the client, a negative outcome or monetary loss resulted for the client in a claim in which the client would have otherwise prevailed.
Legal malpractice claims often stem from one of the following:
§ lack of organization,
§ lack of calendaring (or the mis-calendaring) of deadlines,
§ failure to properly plan,
§ improper legal advice,
§ mishandling of funds,
§ dabbling in a new/unfamiliar area of law,
§ excessive litigation at the client’s expense, and/or
§ breach of attorney-client privilege.
Unfortunately, this list is not exhaustive.
Elements of Legal Malpractice
To prevail in a legal malpractice claim, a client need only prove four things: “(1) employment of an attorney, which creates a duty to the client; (2) failure of the attorney to exercise ordinary skill and knowledge [breach of the duty]; and (3) that such negligence was the proximate cause of (4) damage to the plaintiff.” Solnosky v. Goodwill, 892 N.E.2d 174, 177 (Ind. Ct. App 2008).
“Trial within a Trial” Doctrine
Under the ‘trial within a trial’ doctrine, clients must prove the attorney's negligence proximately caused their injuries by showing the outcome of the substandard representation would have been more favorable to the clients but for the attorney’s negligence (i.e., a negative outcome or monetary loss resulted for the client in a claim in which the client would have otherwise prevailed). Roumbos v. Vazanellis, 95 N.E.3d 63, 65-66 (Ind. 2018).
Statute of Limitations/Discovery Rule
In Indiana, the statute of limitations for a legal malpractice claim is two years; however, legal malpractice claims are subject to the ‘discovery rule,’ which “provides that the statute of limitations does not begin to run until such time as the plaintiff knows, or in the exercise of ordinary diligence could have discovered, that he had sustained an injury as [a] result of the tortious act of another.” Myers v. Maxson, 51 N.E.3d 1267, 1276 (Ind. Ct. App. 2016). In other words, the statute of limitations does not begin to run until two years from the date the malpractice occurred or the date that a plaintiff knew or should have known that it occurred.
Regarding the discovery rule, ‘reasonable diligence’ means the injured party should act with some promptness “where the acts and circumstances of an injury would put a person of common knowledge and experience on notice that some right of his has been invaded or that some claim against another party might exist.” Myers, 51 N.E.3d at 1276.
Bottom Line
Some attorneys are simply unwilling to assist in this particular area of law, but not the litigation team at The Nice Law Firm! We provide the years of experience and requisite knowledge necessary to provide aggressive representation in the area of legal malpractice, and we will not shy away from your case just because it involves another attorney.
If you believe you have a claim for legal malpractice, call our litigation team today. We would be happy to speak with you over the phone, via email, or through a virtual meeting, and you will have our full attention as you relay the facts surrounding your case. We understand the reason you are reaching out to our firm is as a result of a poor experience with another attorney or firm already; therefore, we make it our personal goal to show you what honest, professional, knowledgeable, and aggressive attorney representation truly means.
