A car fire in an enclosed parking garage can cause significant damage, not only to the car itself but also to surrounding vehicles and structures. If you have experienced a car fire in a public or private parking garage, you may be wondering who is liable for the resulting damages. The answer depends on the circumstances of the fire, who is at fault for the fire, and whether you parked your car yourself or a parking garage attendant parked it for you. A Phoenix car accident lawyer can help you make sense of the situation and determine whether you have the basis of an injury lawsuit. The Differ ..read more

In Paradigm Ins. Co. v. Langerman Law Offices, 24 P.3d 593, 200 Ariz. 146 (Ariz. 2001), insurance company Paradigm chose attorney Langerman to provide an insurance defense to a doctor who had been sued.  Langerman was negligent, but her negligence only damaged the insurer, not the doctor and the insurer sued her for malpractice. Id. at pp. 594-96. Langerman obtained judgment in the trial court by arguing that there was no formal retainer and all parties understood that she was representing the doctor, not the insurer and therefore, owed no duty of care to the insurer. Id.  The Arizon ..read more

The Restatement and a leading treatise state that in every state in the union including Arizona, attorneys have recognized fiduciary duties to their clients. (See, Legal Malpractice Litigation at 4-4, Entrekin, Bloomberg BNA 2018; Restatement of Law (Third) Governing Lawyers, Section 16(3)). Arizona Attorneys’ Fiduciary Duties to their Clients These duties include a duty to deal honestly with their clients and to communicate all facts relevant to important decisions that belong to the client. (Id.; Id.) Attorneys in every state also have a fiduciary duty of loyalty to the client and the classi ..read more

Sometimes, a lawyer’s negligence causes a client’s business to lose sales.  There are a specific set of rules governing proof of lost profits. The first question is whether this is a new business with no profits yet or whether it is an existing business with a record of sales.  It is possible to recover lost profits for a new business with no record of sales, but it is very difficult. See, Rancho Pescado v. Northwestern Mutual Life, 680 P.2d 1235, 140 Ariz. 174 (App. 1984). If the business has some history of sales, the court will conclude damages are non speculative. Lininger v. Din ..read more

Let’s say you obtain an award of damages against your former attorney.  You may be entitled to prejudgment interest. In my home state of Arizona, the law on prejudgment interest is similar to the law in most other states. Arizona Law on Pre Judgement Interest Whether a party is entitled to prejudgment interest is decided by the judge after a damages award has been rendered, not by a jury. Employer’s Mut. Cas. Co. v. McKeon, 170 Ariz. 75, 821 P.2d 766 (App. 1991). The test for whether a damages award qualifies for prejudgment interest is whether the claim is liquidated. Fleming v. Pima Cou ..read more

  Being human, lawyers make many mistakes, but most of those mistakes will not become the basis for a successful legal negligence lawsuit. In order for a lawyer’s mistake to result in a successful negligence lawsuit, you must prove, through the use of an expert witness in most cases, that the mistake was not one a reasonably prudent lawyer would have made in the same or similar circumstances.  This is often easy to show, but in some cases, the mistake is only evident in light of information obtained after the fact. Assuming you make it over the first hurdle, you must also show that ..read more

  An issue that arises in legal malpractice cases frequently is whether the attorney client relationship had been properly terminated when a particular event occurred.  There are two ways to terminate an attorney-client relationship: 1) as a matter of law; and 2) as a matter of fact. Termination as a matter of law means that the occurrence of a certain event terminates the relationship, regardless of the parties’ intent or the observance of formalities. As a Matter of Law One event that usually terminates the relationship as a matter of law is the death of the client.  Generally ..read more

  While an attorney usually signs a written contract agreeing to represent a client, known as a “retainer,” the grounds upon which an attorney may be sued are generally not contractual.  This is for the benefit of the client, in that it prevents the attorney from drafting a contract hugely to the attorney’s advantage. Duties of an Attorney Regardless of what is in the retainer contract, the law imposes a duty of care and duties of honesty, loyalty and fidelity on an attorney relative to the client. For this reason, suits against attorneys are generally under a negligence or fiduciary ..read more

A question that often arises in legal malpractice cases is whether an initial consultation with a potential client, with no written retainer agreement coming out of the consultation, can make an attorney liable to the potential client. One point that appears clear is if an attorney learns in a consultation that the potential client has interests adverse to the attorney’s already existing client, the attorney has no duty to help the potential client. In Flatt v. Sup. Ct., 9 Cal.4th 275, 885 P.2d 950 (Cal. 1994), the attorney learned that the potential client had a claim against his current clie ..read more

  BREACH OF CONTRACT Victims of legal malpractice sometimes seek to bring suit under a breach of contract theory, for various reasons. One reason is because in many states, the winning party in a breach of contract case can receive reimbursement of their attorneys fees.  Another reason is that in most states, the statute of limitation for breach of contract is longer than the statute of limitation for negligence or other theories commonly asserted against attorneys. Breach of contract claims against attorneys are rarely successful, because the person bringing the suit must show that ..read more