Legal Malpractice

Reasonable Trial Strategy in Legal Malpractice

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

An attorney is free to utilize a reasonable trial strategy for its client without a risk of legal malpractice.  So goes the "judgment" principal in legal malpractice.  What constitutes a reasonable trial strategy?

As an example, Noone v Stieglitz ;2009 NY Slip Op 01093 ;Decided on February 10, 2009 ; Appellate Division, Second Department  is instructive.  Attorneys win in this case, having demonstrated a "reasonable" trial strategy:
 

"The defendants Michael Steiglitz and Sobel, Ross, Fleigel & Suss, LLP (hereinafter the respondents), represented the plaintiff in an underlying personal injury action to recover damages she sustained in an automobile accident, which occurred when the defendant in the underlying action drove his truck into her lane. The defendant in the underlying action testified that he was forced into the plaintiff's lane by a yellow car which drove into his lane from the side of the road. The plaintiff relied upon the testimony of a nonparty eyewitness, who stated there was no yellow car.

During jury deliberations at the trial on the issue of liability in the underlying action, the plaintiff accepted a "high-low" settlement offer whereby she would receive $1,000,000 if the jury found in her favor on the issue of liability and $500,000 if the jury found in favor of the defendant. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant.

The plaintiff then commenced the instant action to recover damages for legal malpractice against the respondents alleging, inter alia, that they committed legal malpractice by failing to present at the trial a map of the area of the road where the accident occurred and related records of [*2]recent highway construction demonstrating that there was no shoulder or entrance on the side of the road from which the yellow car could have come. The plaintiff further alleged that the respondents failed to advise her of the consequences of the high-low settlement.

The respondents moved for summary judgment on the grounds, inter alia, that the plaintiff was advised of the consequences of the high-low settlement on the record in the underlying action, their strategy was to rely upon the favorable testimony of a nonparty eyewitness, and submitting a map of the road would not have helped the plaintiff's case. The respondents noted that at the trial in the underlying action, the plaintiff's position was that if there was no shoulder, there was no place for the yellow car to come from, but if there was some sort of shoulder, the defendant in the underlying action should have used the shoulder rather than the plaintiff's lane to avoid the yellow car. "

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Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on February 19, 2009 (boomark / email).