Legal Malpractice

On again and Off Again Judgment in Legal Malpractice

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

We reported on this case, and its little known term, Prothonotary last month.  Now the Times Leader reports: "Luzerne County Prothonotary Jill Moran has once again entered a $3.4 million judgment against a law firm in a hotly contested legal malpractice case that included allegations of bias against Judge Mark Ciavarella.

Moran on Friday signed a court document that will allow attorneys with Robert Powell and Associates, a law firm in which she is a partner, to collect on a jury verdict awarded to Bernadette Slusser against the law firm of Laputka, Bayless, Ecker and Cohn.

Moran’s action comes six weeks after a specially appointed Centre County judge struck down a previous judgment Moran signed. Senior Judge Charles C. Brown Jr. ruled on July 14 that the Powell firm had acted prematurely in obtaining the judgment because an outstanding legal claim had not yet been resolved.

That outstanding claim, known as detrimental reliance, became a non-issue on Thursday, however, after Jonathan Lang, an attorney with the Powell firm, filed court papers dropping the claim. That opened the door for the firm to once again seek to collect on the judgment.

The move is the latest legal salvo in a highly contentious battle over the $3.4 million verdict a jury entered in February against the Laputka firm."

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on September 03, 2008 (boomark / email).