Facing legal malpractice claims can send your career into a tailspin. It helps to take a moment to step back and consider all your possible defenses.
In some cases, you may have a situation where an error made by the judge is what was at the heart of the issues that led to the malpractice claims. If this is true for you, then you could have a valid judicial error defense.
Judicial error explained
A judicial error occurs when the judge in the case makes an erroneous decision that changed the trajectory of the case. If a judge’s error is at the heart of why things went wrong in the case, then you can use that as a defense in your malpractice case.
The defense strategy
When using the judicial error defense, you will have to show the mistakes made by the judge. You also need to prove that it was the decision by the judge that eventually led to the outcome which your client is now holding as the basis for the malpractice claims.
Remember that in a legal malpractice case, plaintiffs must show that you breached your duty to them and it caused them to lose their case because of your actions. The court is looking at the evidence to show that if you had not acted in a certain way, then the client would not have lost the case. If you can show it was not your actions that caused the loss then you have a valid defense.
