Double victory for client in legal malpractice case

Partners Jim Sipchen and Amy Thompson recently obtained summary judgment in favor of an attorney accused of failing to timely file a medical malpractice case on behalf of his client. The case was a culmination of a series of allegations made against the attorney in two separately filed lawsuits. In the first suit, Jim and Amy’s client was alleged to have acted as successor counsel in the underlying medical malpractice case and was sued as a third-party defendant by predecessor counsel for failing to timely file the medical malpractice case. After the plaintiff lost the first action, he attempted to sue the same client directly under the same theory in a second lawsuit, which Jim and Amy successfully argued was barred by res judicata and rules prohibiting claim splitting.