Most lawyers, we submit, are relatively good at what they do and conscientious as they go about doing it.
That is, they’re up to the task of representing their clients, which means that that they understand the laws in play, know how to interpret and apply them, and are generally competent in all aspects of their job. Compared with their peers and established industry canons, they are not substandard practitioners.
The same is true of doctors, of course, and dentists, teachers, police officers, truck drivers, journalists and most people who persevere through professional training and care about what they do.
But in no industry is it true of all practitioners.
And that includes law, where notable deficiencies in practice can harm a client in adverse ways.
It is both logical and necessary that all lawyers in California and across the country are held accountable for what they do (or don’t do, or do in sadly mediocre fashion) and that individuals and businesses that suffer damage linked with legal negligence or outright bad-faith conduct have remedies to redress it.
Here’s a question: How prevalent is alleged attorney malfeasance that leads to legal malpractice claims?
Consider this. According to the publication Business Insurance, the central finding in a recent survey addressing that query revealed that legal malpractice filings “increased in both frequency and severity last year” when compared with 2014.
An upward tick in a single year does not signal alarm bells, of course, but it is certainly noteworthy and underscores the point that legal malpractice is a material concern and that victims must have avenues available to them to pursue recompense for harms that result from botched legal services.
Questions or concerns regarding substandard legal representation can be directed to a proven legal malpractice attorney.