Legal Malpractice

Just Another Form of Legal Malpractice

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

In the high flown world of patent infringement, large legal fees are the norm.  Here, from law.Com we see the story of $ 10 million in legal fees, all spent in a fruitless effort to enforce a patent infringement case against Palm.  In the end, plaintiff paid its attorney $ 7 million plus in fees, and paid the opposing attorney $ 2.6 million and all for naught.

"E-Pass Technologies is trying to recover millions it paid to Moses & Singer and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in an ill-fated patent infringement suit by going after the two firms with a negligent misrepresentation lawsuit.

E-Pass originally sued Palm Inc. and others in the Northern District of California in 2000. But U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen dismissed the litigation in 2006, found the German patent holding company had committed litigation misconduct, and awarded attorney fees to the defendants.

"In advising E-Pass to file and maintain their patent infringement claim, they spent $10 million in legal fees and costs without a sound basis to make the elemental case of patent infringement," said James Rosen of Rosen Saba, which filed the suit for E-Pass against its former lawyers at Moses & Singer and Squire Sanders.

The suit against the law firms (.pdf) was filed in San Francisco Superior Court in January, but Rosen Saba didn't serve it then because it was waiting for a decision on E-Pass' appeal of the underlying case, Rosen said. On Friday the U.S. Circuit Court of Federal Appeals affirmed Jensen's decision, and Rosen said the law firms will now be served.

The suit names E-Pass' primary trial counsel, Moses & Singer, and a partner at the New York firm, Stephen Weiss. It also targets Squire Sanders and San Francisco partner Mark Dosker.  "
 

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on March 25, 2009 (boomark / email).