Legal Malpractice

The US House of Representatives and Legal Malpractice

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

Some combinations are simply counter-intuitive...ice cream and pickles, waffles and fried chicken, the US House of Representatives and legal malpractice.  Once explained, they are clear as a bell.  The South Carolina Appellate Blog explains how the US legislative body got involved in this legal malpractice case:

"In Spence v. Wingate, the South Carolina Court of Appeals granted a grant of partial summary judgment in a legal malpractice claim. At base, the trial court had held that the law firm did not owe a fiduciary duty to the wife concerning her late husband’s life insurance policy. The law firm represented the wife of the late Congressman Floyd W. Spence. The law firm originally undertook representation to negotiate an agreement on wife’s behalf with four sons of her husband regarding a division of the probate estate. During the course of the representation, the wife also consulted with the law firm about her husband’s federal life insurance policy and informed the law firm that Spence had named her as a beneficiary. The facts developed that shortly before his death Spence did attempt to change the beneficiary on his life insurance policy so the wife would be the sole beneficiary. Prior to this attempted change, Spence had named each of his four sons and the wife as equal beneficiaries. The United States House of Representatives determined that the proceeds should be divided equally among the wife and the four sons. "

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on April 22, 2008 (boomark / email).