Legal Question in Legal Malpractice in Maryland

A Complete Legal Debacle

I hired a family law attorney to petition the court to adjust a temporary custody and child support order. The attorney intially mislead me to believe we would get a court date with in 90 days. It was exactly 13 months before we had a hearing. Leading up to the hearing the attorney did absolutely no research nor give me any guidance on how to prepare. For instance I asked my attorney to request bank statements that could support or disprove the excessive amount of child care cost or to check to see if the mother was recieving any kind of financial assistance but he never did any of that. Over 13 months he rarely returned my phone calls or emails? At times it seemed as if he was purposely trying to sabotage the case. I emailed and mailed him key evidence but he would never even acknowledge recieving the documents. 15 min before the hearing we took 5 minute going over my testimony. I asked him several times if there was any document I needed to provide him or anything I could do to strengthen my case but he didn't respond until 15 min prior to me flying to maryland for the hearing. We had a slam dunk case if he would have just tried a little. The judge said we didn't have any evidence to support my claims so I lose.


Asked on 6/18/09, 11:31 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert Sher Wagshal and Sher

Re: A Complete Legal Debacle

It certainly sounds like your attorney failed to fulfill his responsibilities and provide you with adequate legal representation. He may not be responsible for the delay in the hearing, although 13 months is an inordinately long time for this type of proceeding. If you bring a malpractice action, you would have to prove the "case within the case"--i.e., that you would have obtained a better outcome but for his performance. This is hard to do in this kind of case. Another option is to file a grievance before the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission, and/or a fee arbitration complaint before the bar in the county where the attorney's office is located. Neither of these actions will be at any expense to you.

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Answered on 6/19/09, 9:34 am


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