If you are looking to see if you have a legal malpractice lawsuit or want to find an Illinois attorney who will sue another attorney, call us any time for free and in confidence at 312-346-5320.
We speak to people every week who want to sue their Illinois attorney. The most common complaint is against divorce and family law attorneys. That makes sense because those are emotional cases and if you don’t feel like your attorney is fighting for you, especially when they are charging you so much, you will be pissed.
Suing a divorce lawyer can be challenging. Generally speaking, you can’t sue them for judgment calls. In other words, if you wanted them to present a certain piece of evidence, but they determined it wasn’t a good idea, it’s likely not a lawsuit
On the other hand, there are some items that should be done that might not be aware of that if your lawyer doesn’t do could be legal malpractice. I’m talking about a failure to get an order forcing your spouse to take out a life insurance policy that could benefit you or your children.
Recently, a very prominent Chicago divorce attorney lost a trial and was ordered to pay his former client $1 million for failing to secure life insurance for her from her ex. They had special need kids and the life insurance was protection for them and their costs in case something happened to him. As luck would have it, her ex husband would die shortly after the divorce. Even prominent, good attorneys can screw up.
I talked to three experienced divorce attorneys after this case came out. They all agreed that life insurance is something that should be insisted on. One bluntly stated that it’s fairly standard that you get life insurance to secure child support and related expenses. He also said that it’s something that should happen if there’s an order for maintenance (alimony).
This is one of those situations for clients that you don’t know what you don’t know. But if you were involved in a divorce case where life insurance wasn’t secured, you may have a legal malpractice lawsuit.
Few things to know:
- There are time limits for suing an attorney in Illinois for legal malpractice. You must sue your attorney within two years of when you knew or reasonably should have known that malpractice might have occurred, but no more than six years from when it did.
- The lawyers we know who sue other Illinois attorneys work on a contingency basis. This means there is no fee unless they are successful.
- We will consider suing divorce lawyers in Illinois for other issues that cause financial harm such as failure to get you a share of your spouse’s pension or business.
If you would like to speak with an experienced lawyer for free about suing your attorney, you can call us any time at 312-346-5320.