Causation is when you try to prove that your prior lawyer’s negligence in a previous case that he or she represented you in is the reason that you didn’t get a better settlement or judgment. It has to be completely their fault that you didn’t come out better (much better) in the end. There have to have been significant damages to you as a direct result of them not performing more effectively in your last trial, which is now essentially a trial within this new legal malpractice trial. Causation can be challenging to show, but as long as you have your information organized from the beginning you can win your new lawsuit against your old lawyer.
The most important thing to do is to be sure that you plea correctly and fully in the beginning (within your complaint), otherwise your case can get thrown out before it even gets started. You should be organized and have all of your evidence together, because there won’t be any adding-on of damages that you might find out about after the malpractice trial has begun. Again, these can’t be minuscule, insignificant damages that you are asking for, neither can they be assumed; they have to be real and collectable. This is very important to be mindful of in the State of California, because your ex-lawyer that you are suing can use what is called a demurrer. This would dismiss your case, on the grounds that you didn’t properly request each and every claim against him or her, and that some of them were not material and/or were speculative.
So, how do you go about proving that the damages you seek are attainable? Before you go to trial you have to do (or review) some research from the case that the lawyer was previously negligent in. Your job would be to make the judge in your new legal malpractice suit see that you would have been able to clearly and without a doubt got compensated in full from the previous person that you were suing.
The more documentation you have, the better. In showing something as meticulous as causation, attaining a very experienced legal malpractice attorney like the ones at Makarem & Associates will be pivotal in proving your case. When you are ready to take on your past negligent lawyer, call us at 310.312.0299 or you may email at [email protected].