PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY CLAIMS

Carmen D. Caruso and his partners have defended lawyers and law firms who were charged with legal malpractice, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duties.  These were serious cases in which the law firm's insurance carrier had issued a "reservation of rights" and which, as a result, the lawyer/defendants were free to retain the trial attorneys of their choice, instead of working with a defense firm that was selected by the insurance company.    

Mr. Caruso continues to represent other attorneys who are sued in civil litigation or who are accused of violating the Illinois Code of Professional Responsibility.    

Professional liability also arises when lawyers violate their duties to the Court and other litigants under established court rules.  In a widely-cited decision in the early 1990's, Mr. Caruso and his partners recovered, against a plaintiff's lawyer, over $400,000 in legal fees that were expended in the defense of frivolous RICO claims brought by a window-wall sub-contractor against a construction management firm.   More recently, Mr. Caruso succeeded in defending an attorney that was held in violation of federal court rules for filing unsupported pleadings, by having his sanction reduced from a proposed $40,000 to $20,000.

Mr. Caruso accepts select legal malpractice against other lawyers or law firms.  He also accepts cases for professional liability against accountants and trustees, and he and his partners previously obtained a recovery on behalf of a trust beneficiary, against his trustees, in excess of $1 Million.  

Frequently these cases come by referral from other lawyers, or from accountants or other professionals.  These claims are increasing in the current era of increased accountability.

We present a a discussion of the legal principles applicable to a claim of legal malpractice which was extracted from Mr. Caruso's recent trial court briefs in a successful legal malpractice action against one of Chicago's leading intellectual property law firms.   Those legal principles may be applied to claims against other professionals such as accountants or trustees.  The facts of that case are also presented in a legal malpractice case study  in which Mr. Caruso successfully trapped the defendant attorneys in their lies.

Mr. Caruso cautions that not every disappointing result is attributable to professional malpractice.