Law-Forums.org

[lorimar]

im looking to find a law firm that might possibley take over a personal injury case from a lawer taht has botched the whole thing,

[mads]

Good luck. There are several reasons why lawyers might not choose to accept such a case. First, you have already shown that you are willing to sue your lawyer; your new lawyer knows this, and in the back of her head she will be wondering if you will be suing her next if you are unhappy with how the legal malpractice case goes. It might be less headache for the second lawyer to just decline representing you. Second, the standard for legal malpractice is pretty high. If you are claiming that some decision the lawyer made based on her discretion constituted malpractice, you will probably lose. However, if the mistake was something like missing the statute of limitations filing deadline (and not because you gave the wrong date of the accident, or failed to provide needed info in time), then you might have a good case. The most complex part of suing your lawyer for malpractice is determining damages. Because the only real way to learn what damages you lost out on would be by having the original trial, the judge might allow a trial-within-a-trial, which is complex, confusing, and time-consuming. Third, lawyers rarely are willing to publicly accuse a fellow lawyer of malpractice in a court of law, even if it might be true.

All that being said, it is possible to find a lawyer willing to take your case. I suggest looking for another personal injury lawyer in the jurisdiction who is not geographically located near the first law firm. You may have to contact multiple firms before finding a firm willing to take the case.

[oakley]

So you just want another firm to take over the case, not to sue the old firm?

As far as getting a new firm to take over, that's easy. Just fire your old attorney, and take all your files to a new one.

If you want to sue your old attorney, there are lawyers who specialize in suing other attorneys for malpractice. You can find them on lawyers.com or get a referral from the State Bar association where you live.