Do you need an expert to prove lawyer malpractice?

In the legal community of probate lawyers Palm Beach County, one of the first  things that any Palm Beach Probate Litigator knows is to conduct a conflicts screening.   After all, probate lawyers West Palm Beach don’t want to have a conflict of interest.  No estate lawyer Palm Beach Gardens wants to get sued for estate planning malpractice.  What happens after you think you have proven a lawyer malpractice claim…. do you need to hire an expert witness to prove malpractice? See what this fall, 2014, Hartford, Connecticut Court had to say on the matter. 

• Probate litigators know that an expert may be required for attorney fee hearings.
• Commercial litigators Palm Beach know that proving damages is very important at trial, and  you often need, sometimes need, a damage expert to prove damages.
• An expert witness in Florida Probate Court could be anyone with expert knowledge in a particular field. But most probate court trials Palm Beach are before a probate court judge: not a jury. So…. a judge is most likely to need an expert less, than, say, a jury, who may need assistance understanding a legal concept.
• What about probate law malpractice West Palm Beach?
• How about lawyer malpractice for estate planning Boca Raton?
• A common example in legal malpractice claims would be hiring a well regarded Palm Beach Probate Litigator to explain the standard of care owed.
• How much do you think an expert witness could cost? If a lawyer charges $350 an hour to be your lawyer…. are they going to charge you less to be your expert?
• What do you want out of your expert, do you want them to testify in court? Are you going to have them read your entire case, and all the related documents? Are they charging you for that- hourly?!

Recent Lawyer Malpractice Case that Probate Lawyers May Want to Read

• Hartford Connecticut Court says no need for an expert in a legal malpractice claim.
• Niro v. Niro was decided Nov. 25, 2014 and is unpublished but is available online as 2014 WL 7525492.
• The Plaintiff and his brother, the Defendant ,consulted with Co-Defendant attorneys and engaged their legal services in order to implement an estate plan. 
• The Defendant attorney was involved with an idea to set up trusts and carry out estate transfers — allegedly contrary to the agreed upon plan.  Was someone supposed to be the trustee and they were not?  The plaintiff was not made trustee of his children’s trusts.
• The Defendant said that summary judgment was proper because the Plaintiff had prepared no expert to show that malpractice had occurred and the Court held that no expert was necessary. Do you agree?
• Does a jury of people from West Palm Beach really know what the duty of care for a probate litigator is when he may regularly be performing legal services throughout South Florida from Delray to Miami? Whose more apt to know these duties the layman or the lawyer? If an expert in this case is just another lawyer, can a lawyer Defendant hire someone they know personally to defend their acts?