Illinois Lawyer Referrals and Legal Guidance
Legal Malpractice in Cook County
Findgreatlawyers.com is the leading resource for finding attorneys in Cook County or anywhere else in Illinois. We help in all areas of Illinois law including attorney malpractice. Our staff of lawyers will speak to you for free and if needed refer you to the right law firm for your situation. If you would like our help please contact us at (312) 346-5320. All inquiries are confidential.
A lawyer commits legal malpractice when he or she violates the “standard of care” – meaning they fail to adequately represent their client – and that violation causes the client irreparable harm. For example, if you have a medical malpractice lawsuit against Cook County Hospital, but your attorney misses the one year deadline for filing the lawsuit and the case gets dismissed, he or she may have committed malpractice.
Even though this mistake seems obvious, a legal malpractice suit can be difficult to prove. There can be a fine line between malpractice and a bad judgment call. To prove malpractice, you must show that the lawyer violated the standard of care (by comparing their conduct to that of other attorneys), and you also must prove that had your lawyer not violated the standard of care you would have won your case. In other words, you have to prove that your attorney was negligent in missing the deadline, but you also have to prove that had your case been filed on time you would have won and received damages. You also have to show what those damages would have been.
Most Cook County legal malpractice suits are filed at the Daley Center in downtown Chicago. This is the main courthouse in Cook County; it's located at 50 W. Washington Street. This is where your attorney would appear for status hearings and where the trial would take place unless the case settled beforehand.
Few attorneys focus solely on legal malpractice and some take these cases but don’t advertise it on their websites. Often, attorneys can’t take a case because of a conflict of interest. As a result of these limitations, it can be hard to find a legal malpractice attorney. We know several attorneys in Cook County with a record of success in bringing legal malpractice lawsuits and we can help you decide if they are right for you. We will also make sure that they don’t have a relationship with the attorney you want to sue.
If you think you might have a legal malpractice case in Cook County, whether it’s against a car accident attorney in Berwyn or a medical malpractice lawyer in Chicago, we can help you find an experienced attorney to talk to. Please contact us if you would like our help. Every attorney we recommend works on a contingency basis which means there will be no fees unless your case is successful.
Since 2001 findgreatlawyers.com has been the leading resource for finding Illinois legal malpractice lawyers including those in the communities of Chicago, Palatine, Orland Park, Oak Park, Evanston, Schaumburg, Glenview, Northbrook, Maywood, Harvey, Des Plaines, Niles and Arlington Heights. See for yourself why access to our site is like having an attorney in the family.