Ethics and Legal Malpractice
Failing to perform legal work, neglecting cases, and failing to communicate with clients make up a large number of the ethical complaints filed against attorneys. Clients, understandably, do not have a lot of patience if their lawyer misses a deadline. Unfortunately, mistakes do happen - even with computerized case management systems.
One recent lawsuit involved a mistake made by a paralegal, who apparently misread a court rule and entered a wrong filing deadline into the firm's calendar - with the result being that the law firm did not file an important notice of appeal for a client on time.
On Westlaw, pull up a copy of Pincay v. Andrews, 389 F.3d 853 (9th Cir. 2004) to find out what happened. Then answer the following questions:
- What ethical rules did the court discuss?
- What was the court's holding?
- What law firm made the mistake?
- What can the law firm do to prevent themselves from making the same mistakes in the future?