Melrose Law provides strong legal representation to victims whose cases are put in jeopardy due to a lawyer’s behavior. Lawyers are responsible for their actions and must comply with court orders when they are reprimanded. If they choose not to comply and it affects a client’s chances for case success, lawyers can also be responsible for the client’s losses.
Melrose Law files lawsuits against North Carolina lawyers acting in bad faith. We aggressively seek compensation for failed cases and the loss of value in a client’s claim. Especially when a lawyer’s misconduct is to blame. Contact us for a free case review to go over your options. It’s a confidential, no-obligation path to finding out how to hold your former attorney fully liable for mishandling your case.
How Can a Lawyer Violate Court Orders?
A court order is a legal command given by a judge (usually in written form) advising lawyers, plaintiffs, and defendants on certain actions that are required or forbidden in regards to a case.
Lawyers might violate court orders when refusing to turn over evidence or when attempting to intimidate someone involved in the case. They might disobey court orders when misrepresenting the truth or when they sign documents for someone else.
Court orders can involve ignoring “injunctions” that ask parties to provide something or to stop doing something to preserve the case. This might relate to unethical behavior that is stopped by an injunction before it further damages the case.
When lawyers disobey a court order, they are often engaging in misconduct, which can involve behaving dishonestly or illegally influencing the outcome of a case. The North Carolina State Bar lists the potential actions that are considered misconduct for lawyers.
Lawyers can be punished, especially for a pattern of misconduct. Their license to practice law could be jeopardized. They may also be found in contempt of court to face fines and even imprisonment.
Attorneys can also sink their clients’ cases, through no fault of the client.
What Actions Constitute a Violation of Court Orders?
Lawyers can do harm to their careers and hurt their clients’ claims when they violate court orders in these ways and others:
- Failure to appear at ordered court hearings
- Failure to provide requested documents in a timely manner
- Failure to pay fees
- Contacting someone that the lawyer is prohibited from communicating with through a court order
- Violating the rules of professional conduct
These are just a few of the ways a lawyer can end up on the wrong side of the court. The violation of a court order may be a case of incompetence or may be intentional. Either way, the case’s chance of success is often hurt, even if the client is able to hire a new lawyer.
The responsibility for a rejected case or a case that doesn’t result in the judgment that was expected should fall to the lawyer. The damages that go uncompensated should be the financial liability of the attorney in question and never the client.
Clients can understandably feel in over their heads when they’ve been betrayed and are considering suing their own lawyers. It’s an intimidating task for almost anyone.
It’s why Melrose Law’s North Carolina Legal Malpractice Lawyers are ready to help. We can investigate what happened in the courtroom and make sure an attorney doesn’t get to slip away from accountability. We want to win you back everything you could have secured and, in some cases, more.
How Do I Prove Legal Malpractice?
Cases lost due to the negligent actions of an attorney come in many forms. Clients and former clients must prove that the attorney had a negative outcome on a case and that another lawyer on the same case would have done much better for the client.
In a legal malpractice claim, you would have to prove these factors and others:
- The parties involved had an attorney-client relationship.
- The attorney failed to act in the client’s best interest (e.g., missing a deadline for the case)
- Demonstrating the difference in what a competent lawyer would have done and the actions of the negligent lawyer.
- The client and the client’s case were harmed, and the client’s lawyer was to blame.
How Can a North Carolina Legal Malpractice Lawyer Help Me Recover My Case?
Your Melrose Law attorneys would be ready to collect all evidence to prove negligence regarding the duties and responsibilities listed above.
These are a few other ways an attorney helps you recover after a betrayal of trust caused by a lawyer:
- Fully investigates your case, how it was handled, and the actions that led to a court order violation.
- Hires expert witnesses in the legal field to go over the normal steps an attorney would have taken and the steps that your lawyer failed to take.
- Recreating the circumstances of your original claim to show the potential settlement or judgment you could have received compared to the devalued case or the rejected case your previous lawyer left behind.
- Show the potential bias that the actions of an unprofessional lawyer may have created in the courtroom
- Clearly explain the damage done to your life to a judge or jury. For accident victims, it‘s the support they need, but never received to pay their medical bills and support their families while they can’t work. For fraud and finance cases, it’s the money that was stolen that business owners may have no way to replace to keep their doors open.
Will Another Lawyer Represent Me If I Must Sue My Former Attorney for Legal Malpractice?
Most law firms shy away from suing other lawyers. But at Melrose Law, we stand up for victims. We understand that everyone makes mistakes, but lawyers should be held accountable if they are the reason a client’s case ends without success.
Because even a small mistake can cost a client a chance to earn thousands of dollars in support. Victims may have been counting on settlement money to pay medical bills, replace lost income, or get justice for the death of a loved one. Victims may simply have wanted to avoid bankruptcy, but a lawyer’s misstep has now made that impossible.
Facing off against a lawyer can be intimidating and complex. Thankfully, our North Carolina Court Order Violation Lawyers are ready to step in and protect you and handle every aspect of your case.
What Type of Damages Are Compensated in a Legal Malpractice Case?
Victims should list every hardship that’s been caused by a failed legal claim. Every damage that a negligent attorney had a hand in should be included. At Melrose Law, we make sure no damage or hardship is left out of a lawsuit or civil claim.
Our attorneys would be fighting for these and other benefits for our clients:
- The financial loss involving the difference between the expected settlement or judgment in a case and what was actually awarded (or not awarded) due to the lawyer’s missteps.
- Any money or fees the client provided for the case that was mishandled.
- Victims can receive support for the additional emotional trauma caused by a failed cause and battle with a once-trusted attorney. For the victims injured in an accident, a physical recovery while still worrying about how medical bills get paid is an especially unfair consequence of a lawyer’s misconduct.
- Punitive damages. In some cases, a judge can add additional fines to a verdict, simply to further punish a lawyer. This additional financial penalty is meant to deter any future thought of violating court orders and acting against the best interests of a client. However, the victim still receives the fees paid and benefits from any punitive damages.
Contact a Legal Malpractice Lawyer Helping North Carolina Clients
Reach out to us for a free legal consultation. You may not be sure if your case was lost due to negligence. A North Carolina Legal Malpractice Lawyer can help you answer that question and determine what you might be able to win back. There’s no obligation, and this meeting is completely confidential. We represent clients in the Asheville area and across North Carolina.
You also don’t have to worry about the cost to hire another attorney after such a bad experience. Melrose Law works on a contingency basis. This means that we don’t get paid unless we win compensation from your former lawyer. Then, our fee is paid out of the money the law firm’s malpractice insurance provider must hand over to you.
