Were you and your family the victims of an estate planning attorney’s negligence? Was failure to plan, failure to advise or follow basic rules the reason that your family member’s will was denied probate admission? You may have grounds for a claim of legal malpractice in West Palm Beach. Do you know what to do? Learn more about how Florida has expanded the doctrine of legal malpractice to protect family members hurt by poor estate planning and malpractice.
Legal Malpractice
- A lawyer has a duty to act reasonably in their professional activities with due care.
- That is a fancy way of saying they cannot act negligently.
- When a West Palm Beach lawyer breaches that duty and it harms an individual, that individual may have a claim for negligence also known as malpractice.
- Do you know how to prove legal malpractice?
- Usually in probate matters proving the negligence can be the simple part.
- If your West Palm Beach will was not admitted to probate because of a basic execution flaw who do you think is to blame?
- Did you know that if you use a legal services website the answer may not be so clear as they may have no duty to act reasonably as a lawyer would?
- The more interesting part for most in the past has been claiming entitlement to relief.
- Do you know why?
The Problem With Privity
- From the old days of England the courts have employed a doctrine known as privity to limit people’s rights to lawsuits.
- Basically without some close relationship why should an attorney owe you a duty?
- Under this traditional approach the only person an estate planning owed any duty to was the decedent.
- So what happens when the decedent dies, the right to sue gets a lot more murky.
- Florida courts have seen this doctrine as outdated and carved out a huge caveat known as third party beneficiaries.
- Basically the reasoning goes that when someone retains an attorney in West Palm Beach to draft a will they are doing so for the benefit of their relatives, not just their own peace of mind.
- Furthermore the lawyer is aware of this and should be held accountable to these relatives.
- Do you agree?
- Do you think you have a claim for legal malpractice against an estate planner in West Palm Beach?