Q: I live in California. We have a questions about a legal malpractice claim against two attorneys.
I live in California. We have a legal malpractice claim against two attorneys, one who abandoned our underlying case prior to trial (no Arb in Retainer Agr) & the other who took the case through trial & lost the case (Retainer Agr has Arb clause). The SOL deadline related to the action against the lst Attorney is upon us. How would you identify in the complaint filed against the lst attorney that not only his but 2nd attorney was complicit in causing us damages, not just the lst attorney so our rights to file against our 2nd attorney at a later time are lost
A: There is a split among attorneys as to whether you should combine serial malpractitioners; it all comes down to specific facts. Indeed, under some circumstances, you may, at some point, be forced to consolidate the two cases. Without knowing more, I would not mention the 2nd attorney in the suit against the 1st attorney.
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A: You must sue both attorneys in one complaint. I'm not a California lawyer as I practice in Illinois, but I am confident that you should sue both attorneys if you believe they committed malpractice. If you sue them separately, each will blame the "empty chair" for the bad result.
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