Suing Your Lawyer

          You consider that your lawyer has not properly handled your case and has harmed you in the process. Therefore you would like to take this to the court. But as usual before heading to the court, you should first try alternatives to litigation such as discussing the fee disputes with your attorney or engaging in fee arbitration, reporting potential ethics violations to your state bar association or hiring another lawyer to repair the damage to an ongoing case
However, if none of theses alternatives totally satisfy you, you may want to consider a legal malpractice claim. This type of case is difficult to prove, so you will have to thoroughly investigate your chances of success before proceeding. Otherwise you may lose even more.

          There are plenty of violation types to the code of conducts, but most complaint fall under three categories.

First you can complain for negligence in the processing of your case including failing to file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations time required under law, missing other important deadlines in the case, not properly preparing for trial, not following court orders Most legal malpractice claims that end up in court are a result of lawyer negligence.

Second category, the lawyer has a conflict of interest that harms you in some way. For instance, your lawyer can represent another client to your disadvantage such as representing another defendant in the same lawsuit, or have financial or social ties or troubles that prevent your lawyer from representing you to your best advantage, lie to you about important case information, willingly not communicate settlement offers, or settle your case for less than it was worth without your approval.

Third, clients can fill a malpractice complaint if lawyers violate the terms of their specific agreement with their client.

          You have to know that it is very hard to win a negligence case against a bad lawyer. You will have to prove that your lawyer owed you a duty to competently represent you, made a mistake or otherwise breached the duty owed to you and that the mistake injured or harmed you in a way that can be measured financially. Since these elements are difficult to prove, most legal malpractice cases are tried in court rather than settled, requiring a lot more preparation from your legal malpractice lawyer. Besides if you hire a legal malpractice lawyer, you will usually be charged a contingency fee ranging from 40% to 50% of the amount you eventually receive. This is a higher contingency fee than other types of negligence cases, because the legal malpractice is harder to be proved. Eventually, if you want to fill a legal malpractice case, you have to do only one year after the settlement of the case. The best solution is to contact a legal malpractice lawyer right away if you think you might have a legal malpractice case.