Rule 1.8 addresses conflicts that can arise between a lawyer and client (as opposed conflicts between clients). Prior to the adoption of Model Rule 1.8 in 1983, the ABA Model Code flatly prohibited agreements limiting liability. DR 6-102(A) provided that “A lawyer shall not attempt to exonerate himself from or limit his ability to
Law firms that want to include mandatory arbitration provisions in their client engagement agreements must explain to the client the benefits and disadvantages of arbitrating a prospective dispute, the New Jersey state supreme court held late last year — and merely providing a link to the arbitration rules doesn’t satisfy the requirement, the court said.
In a narrow ruling last month by a sharply-divided West Virginia high court, a law firm escaped liability for failing to prevent a phishing/spoofing scheme that resulted in more than $266,000 in closing funds being wired to scammers, after they impersonated plaintiffs’ real estate agent. The opinion is part of the developing law on lawyer
Legal malpractice plaintiffs fended off motions to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction in two separate cases, in two different jurisdictions, under opinions that happened to be filed on the same day last week. The opinions, from a New Jersey state appeals court and a North Carolina federal district court, stand as a warning
Falling below the standard of care in providing legal services to a client can of course bring a malpractice claim down on your head — and as we’ve pointed out, the economic climate resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic raises the risk of such claims. Let’s say that you’ve actually made an error. If you
When we scheduled our daughter’s wedding for March 15 in New York City, little did we know how surreal the world would be by then. The wedding did happen, with a much-reduced number of guests, hand sanitizer on each table, and with the hora joyously danced with gloves on. The next day, the governor banned
A prominent Chinese dissident may proceed with his malpractice case against a law firm based on allegations that the firm failed adequately to protect his personal data from hackers, a Washington, D.C. district court said in an opinion on February 20. In his $50 million suit, the plaintiff, Guo Wengui, alleges that after he retained
Being in the cross-hairs of a client’s legal malpractice claim is a horrible-enough experience for any lawyer. Even worse would be if your house had to be sold in order to satisfy the former client’s default judgment against you, as the Seventh Circuit ordered in a case earlier this month. The opinion spotlights how state
A New Jersey lawyer was suspended for six months for misrepresenting to clients for about eight years that their arbitration matter “was proceeding apace,” when he actually had never filed their claim. The lawyer also concealed from his firm for almost two years the malpractice suit that the clients later filed, including the default judgment
If you and your spouse are both lawyers, you know that you potentially face a few unique ethics issues — conflicts and confidentiality are the most obvious ones. (We’ve considered some of the ins and outs