I found the following over at the DC Metro Area Personal Injury Law Blog which provides a crisp summary regarding legal malpractice claims:
"Legal malpractice cases are ofen expensive to litigate and difficult to win. Three conditions must exist in order to prove legal malpractice:
- An attorney-client relationship existed;
- The attorney breached a duty he or she owed to the client; and
- The attorney’s wrongdoing caused the client harm.
The most common reasons for a legal malpractice suit are:
- The lawyer didn’t know the substantive law well enough;
- The lawyer failed to get a client’s consent or to inform the client;
- The lawyer failed to calendar events;
- Not knowing or observing a deadline; and
- Insufficient discovery and/or investigation."