STATISTICS on LEGAL MALPRACTICE

Last year more than 35,000 victims initiated claims against lawyers who had legal malpractice insurance. Of those victims, 12,000 people successfully recovered money. These claims are only the tip of the iceberg because they only represent negligence claims against insured attorneys.

Of these insured negligence claims, the most prevalent malpractice occurred in the area of personal injury-Plaintiffs which amounted to 25% of all insured claims. Closely behind was the area of Real Estate law which accounted for 16% of all claims. Probate and estate claims along with business startups accounted for approximately 10 % each

1900 of the malpractice victims were paid over $100,000 damages.

Generally, the most common types of mistakes are: 1) failure to know the substantive law; 2) not knowing/observing a deadline; 3) failure to inform client or get a client's consent; 4) failure to calender events; and 5) inadequate discovery/investigation.

Most Legal Malpractice falls in the following classes of errors:

(1) Administrative Errors: Failure to Calendar, Failure to File/No Deadline, Clerical error, procrastination.
(2) Substantive Errors: Failure to know Deadline, Inadequate Investigation, Failure to Know the Law, Conflict of Interest.
(3) Client Relations: Failure to Follow Client Instructions, Failure to Obtain Client's Consent, Improper Withdrawal.
(4) Intentional Wrongdoing: Libel, Malicious Prosecution, Civil Rights, Fraud, fraud, theft

Medical Malpractice Statistics