Tampa’s Legal Malpractice Attorneys
At Jack Bernstein, Injury Attorneys, we know that an attorney error can cost you dearly. When you turn to your lawyer for help, they may make careless, reckless or even intentional mistakes that cost you money, time, and other things that you hold dear. Legal malpractice can occur in any field of law. When it happens to you, our legal malpractice attorneys in Tampa are here to help you right the wrong.
Working With Our Legal Malpractice Lawyers in Tampa
When you work with an attorney, you have the right to competent representation. You have the right to assume that your attorney is qualified and capable of doing the job just like you expect your doctor to know what they’re doing. When your attorney makes errors, the results may be devastating.
Fortunately, you have a remedy. When you’re the victim of legal malpractice, you can bring a claim against the attorney for the damages that they cause by their actions. You can receive compensation that attempts to make you whole for what you lost because of the legal malpractice. You can ask for additional amounts to cover the emotional anguish that you endure because of your attorney’s errors.
What Are Some Types of Legal Malpractice in Florida?
Legal malpractice can happen in almost any type of case in Florida. For example, your attorney may have a certain number of days to respond to a motion by the other party to the case. But the attorney doesn’t write the date on their calendar, and they miss the deadline. Because of the attorney error, the court rules that you can’t enter valuable evidence into a trial for the jury to consider. You end up losing your case. You may have a valid attorney malpractice case.
An attorney can only take a case that they’re qualified to handle. If their inexperience causes them to make errors, they may commit malpractice. For example, in your case, you may be required to submit pretrial statements to the court including a trial brief and a list of witnesses. If the attorney is so new to the practice of law that they don’t know they need to file a trial brief and witness list, their failure to comply with the court order may amount to malpractice.
Here are just a few examples of legal malpractice in Florida:
- Failing to file the case by the statute of limitations, despite having time to comply based on when you hired the attorney
- Not acting in the client’s best interests at all times
- Giving the client bad information about whether to accept a settlement deal
- Declining to perform discovery when it’s warranted based on the circumstances of the case
- Accepting a settlement offer on the client’s behalf without talking it through with the client first
- Leaving something critical off a witness or exhibit list so that it’s excluded at trial
- Declining to motion the court on a key issue in the case
- Allowing the other side to enter evidence in at trial when valid objections exist
- Billing the client unfairly based on the work performed and the client agreement
- Not being forthcoming with the client
- Refusing to return client emails and phone messages in a reasonable period of time
- Taking the case and then not doing any work on the case, causing the client to miss important deadlines
- Missing an important cause of action to plead in the initial filing documents
- Failing to assert a valid defense
- Cutting corners in jury selection
- Coming to court unprepared
What Is Legal Malpractice in Florida?
Legal malpractice is the breach of an attorney’s duty to do a competent job for their client. Attorneys have a responsibility to act in the best interests of their clients at all times. They must perform their duties based on what a reasonable attorney would do in the same circumstances. The standards for legal malpractice are professional standards. That means that you can expect your attorney to represent you with the same skill and training that a reasonable, licensed attorney would use in the same circumstances.
Help for Legal Malpractice Victims
Being the victim of legal malpractice can be frustrating. You go to an attorney when you need help. It probably never crossed your mind that your attorney would go against your interests or otherwise somehow make an error that hurts you. But you have rights. Florida law protects victims of legal malpractice.
You have a right to bring a claim to make you whole. Your attorney may have to pay you damages for the financial harm that they inflict and pay you an additional amount to compensate you for pain and suffering and the stress of dealing with the aftermath of their error. Our Tampa legal malpractice attorneys can help you when you feel like you have nowhere else to turn.
Is Legal Malpractice the Same as a Breach of the Attorney’s Code of Conduct?
A violation may be based on a breach of an attorney’s ethical duties to the client. However, you must be able to show that you suffer harm because of the attorney’s breach of ethics. An attorney discipline proceeding is different and separate from a malpractice action. An attorney discipline proceeding goes before a disciplinary panel with the goal of maintaining an ethical legal system. On the other hand, a legal malpractice action is about compensating you when you become a victim of the attorney’s failure to do their job up to legal standards.
Although a breach of the attorney code of ethics is strong evidence of negligence, it doesn’t automatically mean negligence. You must still show how the attorney’s actions fall below the standard of care compared to a reasonable attorney. Our Tampa legal malpractice attorneys can help you explore how the attorney code of ethics may be relevant to your malpractice claim.
Work With Our Legal Malpractice Attorneys in Tampa
Legal malpractice can make an already stressful legal matter much worse. If you believe that you may be the victim of legal malpractice, you have rights.
At Jack Bernstein, Injury Attorneys, we have decades of experience fighting for the rights of malpractice victims. Contact us today for a free consultation with no obligation. We can give you the peace of mind to know that you’re working towards relief and fair compensation when you’re the victim of legal malpractice in Florida.
Tampa Car Accident + Personal Injury Lawyers
For more than 40 years, personal injury lawyer Jack G. Bernstein has protected the rights of individuals who have been injured in a variety of circumstances. Throughout his career, Bernstein has been a strategist thoroughly dedicated to the idea of protecting the rights of his clients. Mr. Bernstein is a member of the Florida State Bar Association, the Hillsborough Bar Association and the Clearwater Bar Association.
Mr. Bernstein has the experience and expertise to handle a wide range of injury cases. Among the types of plaintiffs Mr. Bernstein represents are individuals involved in car accidents caused by drunk drivers or other exhibiting negligence, medical complications resulting from carelessness caused by a physician or a medical facility, including brain injury, bicycle, motorcycle, moped and truck accidents, admiralty law and cruise ship accidents, accidental drownings, all types of wrongful death lawsuits, along with most injury, catastrophic occurrences and legal malpractice issues.
Our firm handles every type of personal injury and accident case, using negotiation and litigation tactics effectively. We handle cases throughout Tampa, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater, FL. With a staff of approximately 40 people, including six lawyers and 34 support personnel, we have the legal resources to get the justice you deserve and the maximum recovery for your losses. Schedule your free consultation today; we are always here to help.
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