Q: When will my deadline start for me to file a legal malpractice lawsuit against a former lawyer?
My brothers lawyer failed to tell him about a 10 yr plea deal. Its been seven years since his conviction where he got life. It was uncovered last year that a email was sent to the lawyer about the 10 plea deal before his trial 17 years ago. A firm filed a post conviction in February to the trial judge, he denied it. Its been in front of the seventh district appeals court for about seven months. Just don't know when his deadline would start for a civil case against his former lawyer
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A: Hi, your question comes up very often. The first to do is to focus on winning the post-conviction petition. Many states have a rule that the plaintiff (former prisoner) has to establish actual innocence before filing a lawsuit. So, I would focus on that requirement before worrying about a malpractice case. In Illinois, once you were found innocent you would have two years to file a case against the lawyer for malpractice.
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