Legal Malpractice
When you hire an attorney, you trust them to protect your rights and handle your case with skill and diligence. When that trust is broken through carelessness, missed deadlines, or poor judgment, the consequences can be devastating — lost cases, lost settlements, and lost opportunities that can never be recovered. The attorneys at Edwards & Bullard Law understand how serious these claims are and have the experience to evaluate whether your former attorney's conduct fell below the standard the law requires.
What Does Legal Malpractice Mean?
Legal malpractice occurs when an attorney's negligent, reckless, or intentional misconduct causes harm to a client. To prove legal malpractice in Georgia, you generally must show:
- An attorney-client relationship existed, creating a duty of care
- The attorney breached that duty by failing to act with the skill and diligence ordinarily used by attorneys in similar cases
- The breach directly caused you harm
- You suffered actual damages as a result
Simply losing a case or being unhappy with the outcome doesn't automatically mean malpractice occurred. The law requires proof that a competent attorney, acting reasonably, would have achieved a different result.
A man hires an attorney to file a personal injury claim after a serious car accident. Months later, he learns his attorney let the statute of limitations expire without ever filing suit. The claim — and his chance at compensation — is gone. This is a situation that may give rise to a legal malpractice case.
What Are Common Examples of Legal Malpractice?
The attorneys at Edwards & Bullard evaluate claims involving attorney errors including, among others:
- Missing a statute of limitations deadline, causing a valid claim to be barred forever
- Failing to file required documents or meet court deadlines
- Settling a case without the client's knowledge or consent
- Conflicts of interest that were not disclosed to the client
- Failing to properly investigate or prepare a case for trial
- Giving incorrect legal advice that leads to a poor outcome
- Mishandling client funds or failing to account for settlement proceeds
- Failing to communicate important developments in a case
How Do I Know If I Have a Case?
Legal malpractice claims are often called a "case within a case" — to succeed, you typically must prove not only that your attorney was negligent, but that you would have won (or achieved a better result) in the underlying matter had they handled it properly. This makes these claims complex and highly fact-specific, requiring careful review of the case file, court records, and the applicable standard of care.
Georgia also imposes a statute of limitations on legal malpractice claims, so it's important to act quickly if you believe your attorney's conduct harmed your case.
Why Experience Matters
Evaluating a legal malpractice claim requires an attorney who understands both the underlying area of law where the mistake occurred and the standards governing attorney conduct. Edwards & Bullard has decades of combined experience navigating complex litigation and knows how to determine whether an attorney's actions fell short of what the law requires.
If you believe your case was mishandled by a previous attorney, contact Edwards & Bullard Law for a free, confidential consultation.
How to Get Started
- Call us today to get started 478-621-4313