Are you involved in a West Palm Beach guardianship dispute? Are your elderly parents subject to a guardianship proceeding? Has the guardian been appointed an attorney by the West Palm Beach probate court? If that attorney offers bad advice to the guardian and it impacts your relatives do you have a claim for professional negligence? Until recently the answer was actually no. Do you know why? Do you know what changed in Florida probate law? Check out this new case out of the Fourth District Court of Appeals to learn more.
West Palm Beach Malpractice
- Malpractice is a legal term for professional negligence, you can bring this type of claim against any professional who is “in practice.”
- This includes lawyers and doctors.
- One important caveat until recently has been privity of contract.
- Do you know what that means?
- In other words, you cannot sue a person for malpractice if they were not practicing directly on you.
- This makes sense in the sense of doctors’ right?
- You do not want to be able to be sued by a third party for damages caused to a privy party.
- This becomes a little more complicated when you consider the duties of a West Palm Beach probate lawyer.
- A probate lawyer is retained to help generations not just the client right?
- If a probate lawyer messes up your will, by the time you know, it is to late!
- Can your relatives bring an action for malpractice?
- Now West Palm Beach probate litigators are on the hook for malpractice under a theory that the family members are third party beneficiaries.
- This same type of issue of privity of contract came up in this recent interesting and prolonged case out of the Fourth District Court of Appeal
Saadeh v. Connors et. Al.
- A ward of a guardianship sued his guardian’s attorney for bad advice given to them.
- The attorney had told him that he would have control of a specific trust and failed to counsel him on various tax follies that the trust brought as well.
- Does he have a claim?
- The trial court said no, that lawyer owed you no duty his client was your guardian.
- The court on appeal said this was nonsensical as any duty owed to the guardian was imputed onto the ward.
Do you agree?
Check out the entire case by clicking here.