Illinois Lawyer Referrals and Legal Guidance
Why Don’t Many Lawyers Handle Legal Malpractice Cases?
Findgreatlawyers.com is a free service, to find an attorney or obtain guidance for any Illinois legal matter, including Illinois legal malpractice cases. We are based in Chicago, but have helped people find experienced legal malpractice attorneys in almost every county in Illinois from as far north as Waukegan and Rockford, down to Carbondale and most places in between. Our service is free and the legal malpractice attorneys we recommend work on a contingency basis which means that they do not get paid unless they are successful. Please call us at (312) 346-5320 or (800) 517-1614 or fill out our contact us form and we will contact you. All inquiries are kept in strict confidence.
Over 80,000 lawyers are licensed to practice law in the state of Illinois, and many of them make mistakes. Sometimes these mistakes are harmless, but others may cause you harm. Even if it doesn’t harm you, an attorney may still do something unethical or inappropriate and violate the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility, for which he can be disciplined severely. A lawyer’s mistake may or may not rise to the level of legal malpractice.
Most lawyers will take on any case that makes them a lot of money. If you had a good medical malpractice case, dozens of firms would be beating down your door to represent you and sue the doctor, the hospital, and anyone else who might have been involved. So why is it so difficult to find a legal malpractice lawyer? There is no single specific answer to this question, but here are a few common reasons:
- Lawyers have to constantly interact with each other. Often, they have to see each other in court, at social gatherings, at bar association meetings, etc. They have to discuss matters with each other on the phone and generally work with each other. Many are afraid to “rock the boat” or create bad feelings at other firms; others just don’t want to be unpopular.
- Lawyers may simply be worried about conflicts of interest. Lawyers must follow an ethical code in Illinois. If they violate it, they can be disciplined, and punishments range from a public reprimand or a monetary fine to suspension of the lawyer’s license to practice law, or even disbarment. A wide range of scenarios can involve conflicts of interest, and it is rarely clear-cut; often, there are shades of grey. Representing clients in certain lawsuits can raise numerous questions, and lawyers may prefer to simply steer clear of potential ethical problems. An attorney may, for instance, already be currently representing a lawyer in the same law firm that you want to sue for legal malpractice. The same attorney obviously cannot advocate on behalf of another attorney, and then simultaneously sue his law firm for legal malpractice, without a conflict of interest.
- Lawyers may have a difficult time proving your case or showing damages that would justify taking a case on a contingency basis. Unfortunately, lawyers may spend many thousands of dollars simply investigating and doing research to put together a winning case. If your damages aren’t sufficiently high, it may not be worth taking on your case to begin with. Other cases are just hard to prove and there may not be a high chance of winning. As a result, lawyers may avoid these cases altogether.
- Lawyers suing other lawyers face a heavy burden of proof. In a legal malpractice case, you have to show that the plaintiff would have done substantially better in his case if the lawyer had not performed so poorly. The attorney’s error may be obvious and glaring, but you still have to prove causation: you must show that the reason you lost your case was due to the attorney’s error, not to any other factor.
Of course, lawyers are businesspeople and want to make money, and the legal malpractice field is a large – and growing – potentially lucrative market. Some firms will definitely take on legal malpractice cases but don’t actively market their services. In other words, you may not see legal malpractice listed on the firm’s website, but these lawyers will take on the “right” case, i.e., a case that the firm thinks is worth a lot of money.
If you think that you might have an Illinois legal malpractice case or have any questions please call us at (312) 346-5320 or (800) 517-1614 or fill out our contact us form and we will contact you. All inquiries are kept in strict confidence.