QUESTION
Do I have recourse against my attorney for his mistake?
Asked on Jul 06th, 2015 on Construction Law - California
More details to this question:
Our construction law attorney filed a lawsuit against our pool builder a few months before the 10-year statute of limitations, basing the start date on the city's final inspection following pool construction. However, the judge said California Code of Civil Procedure Section 337.15 clearly defines the start date criteria. It's not simply the final inspection date, as our attorney believed. The statute of limitations began when pool construction was "substantially complete," not the city's final inspection. Therefore, our case had been filed 3 months past the statute of limitations and was dropped. Our attorney should have known the California Code of Civil Procedure criteria for determining the statute of limitations and not filed our case. Instead, the case wasn't dropped until after $120,000 in attorney fees were racked up by both sides, which we owe. Do we have any recourse against our attorney, since it was his mistake (or lack of knowledge)?
1 ANSWER
2 Awards
Yes. Your situation sounds like a clear case of malpractice. Assuming that your attorney took your case prior to the expiration of the statute of limitations period he/she was certainly charaged with filing the case prior before it was time barred. Although it was probably an honest mistake your attorney is still legally responsible for that mistake and you can seek recourse against him/her.
Jon
Answered on Jul 07th, 2015 at 4:38 PM