Q: If I had an attorney who didn't show up for a show cause hearing and thereby got DWOP w/o prejudice but lost equitable r
Can I file on his E & O Insurance. This was just 1 of many errors or whatever you call a very experienced attorney doing things like this
A:
You would actually be filing a legal malpractice claim against the attorney for the damages you sustained as a result of the DWOP. If your claim is not barred by the statute of limitations, this may be limited to the filing fees and any expenses incurred in connection with the dismissed case which won't similarly benefit a new case asserting the same claims on your behalf.
Failing to appear at a show cause hearing itself may or may not have been malpractice depending on whether there was a valid reason for the court to not DWOP the case. On the other hand, an act or omission that constitutes malpractice may have occurred before that hearing (e.g. not requesting issuance of citation for the defendant, not providing the correct address for service of process on the defendant, not forwarding the citation to a process server to serve on the defendant, etc.).
In all likelihood, if the attorney did make a mistake, he/she would very likely be willing to give you a credit or refund of wasted fees and expenses rather than submitting a claim to their own insurance because it is very likely that amount would be less than the amount of the deductible on their legal malpractice insurance policy.
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