Many states do not permit the assignment of legal malpractice claims. This anti-assignment rule is based on the well-rooted policy that legal malpractice claims are uniquely personal and therefore cannot be assigned. Since malpractice claims typically involve the nature of the attorney’s duty to the client and the confidentiality of the attorney-client relationship, the theory goes that malpractice claims should not be subject to assignment out of fear of creating a “market” for these claims to the highest bidder. A recent decision suggests …
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Who Can Sue Me? Liability to Non-Clients
Generally an attorney only owes a duty of care to her client. Thus, a predicate to a meritorious legal malpractice action is the existence of an attorney-client relationship. But, identifying this relationship and determining to whom that duty extends is not simple. A recent decision demonstrates that an attorney may be exposed to malpractice based on the expectations of non-clients.
In Pete v. Anderson, (Nov. 21, 2013) the Kentucky Supreme Court considered whether the children of a man who died in an auto accident …
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