Legal Malpractice

This paper will examine attorneys' liability for malpractice and the relationship between this liability and the codes of ethics enacted by the states and the American Bar Association (ABA). The specific purpose of this paper is to argue that violations of ethics code provisions should be admissible as evidence of liability for legal malpractice. This view is not based upon any major problem with the current structure of either malpractice liability or the disciplinary system. Rather, it recognizes that there are some similarities in the laws of the two subject areas. Maintaining complete separation between the two areas so far as to deny a plaintiff use of a violation of an ethics code provision as evidence in a malpractice action defies common sense. As will be explained below, the ethics codes have created a much lower standard than malpractice laws based on tort principles. Consequently, violation of ethics code provisions requires more egregious behavior than that necessary for malpractice liability. Therefore, it is logical to allow a plaintiff in a malpractice action to show that the defendant's behavior violated a relevant ethics code provision as part of his case.

The first part of the paper will establish a background to the argument by discussing the traditional bases of liability for legal malpractice. The second part of the paper will look at composition of ethics codes and d

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conduct. Allowing some overlap between disciplinary codes and malpractice actions might represent a step towards increasing the public's respect for the legal profession. Opponents of using the codes in malpractice cases usually point out that the codes "are not statutes or administrative regulations" but rules of behavior adopted by courts. Consequently, these rules should not be given the same status as statutes or administrative regulations. However, this oversimplifies the situation. There are indeed several parallels between ethics codes and traditional statutes and administrative regulations. The codes do have the force of law once they are adopted by the state courts and should have the respect of government organs once they are adopted by government organs. In addition, the ethics codes are intended to protect the public by establishing minimum standards of conduct for attorneys. Thus, they act like statutes by influencing the conduct of attorneys. Opponents go further and argue that courts which enforce these rules in malpractice cases exceed the bounds of their proper role. These rules were not enacted by legislatures and thus did not go through the democratic process of lawmaking. The rules were promul
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Model Codes, Professional Responsibility, Legal Malpractice, Civil Procedure, Model Code, Association ABA, Supreme Court, Rules Malpractice, Michigan Code, Professional Conduct, ethics codes, standard care, malpractice actions, legal malpractice, codes malpractice, malpractice liability, code provisions, ethics rules, malpractice suits, legal system, codes malpractice actions, ethics codes malpractice, code professional responsibility, liability legal malpractice, rules professional conduct,
Approximate Word count = 6658
Approximate Pages = 27 (250 words per page)

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