When you turn to an attorney, you expect that attorney to prioritize your right to address your legal concerns. You never expect an attorney to abuse your trust. Unfortunately, our Columbus legal malpractice lawyers have worked with hundreds of Buckeyes recovering from legal misuse.
We want to make it as easy as possible for you to get justice for your mistreatment. That’s why Cooper Elliott has offered free case consultations to anyone in need of legal support since 1995. We’re ready to help you hold another lawyer accountable for your pain and suffering.
You can work with our malpractice lawyers in Columbus to get you the compensation you need to pay your bills – and the justice you need to reverse the effects of legal malpractice.
When to Call Our Columbus Legal Malpractice Lawyers
It’s in your best interest to connect with a legal malpractice attorney in Columbus sooner rather than later. Ohio’s statute of limitations on legal malpractice only gives you four years to build a case against the party responsible for your losses. If you don’t act within that time frame, you may waive your right to legal action.
What’s more, lawyers can use the time you don’t have an attorney to hide evidence relevant to your recovery. Unfortunately, it can become difficult to access that evidence unless you have an attorney’s resources. We encourage you to let us investigate another attorney’s negligence on your behalf so the evidence most relevant to your case doesn’t go “missing.”
We Don’t Shy Away From Complicated Cases
We understand that the average legal malpractice case puts you in an attorney’s crosshairs. Fortunately, we don’t bow in the face of intimidation, nor do we let attorneys intimidate you out of your right to address the harm caused by legal malpractice.
Types of Legal Malpractice Cases In Ohio
We restore your trust.When you hire an attorney, you place an extraordinary amount of trust in them. If that trust is broken because a lawyer fails to do their job, we are here to help.
Errors resulting in loss of income, employment or other hardship
Errors resulting in loss of legal rights or the ability to recover compensation
Errors resulting in wrongful imprisonment, job loss, and reputational harm
Errors resulting in financial or other loss
The Legal Malpractice Claims Process
We help you determine whether legal malpractice occurred.
An undesired outcome does not necessarily mean a lawyer committed malpractice. We dig into the details to find out where things went wrong, then we take action to demand justice.
We Can Walk You Through the Legal Malpractice Claims Process
You’ve been through the legal process already and know what it involves. While legal malpractice cases can follow many of the same beats as civil cases, there are unique qualities that can make these cases seem more complicated than they are.
Fortunately, you have legal malpractice lawyers in Columbus, OH, on your side. We’re here to simplify the legal process so you can get the money you need to recover with as little fuss as possible.
Gathering Information About Your Losses
Before we can move your legal malpractice case forward, we need to determine what evidence you have proving that another lawyer engaged in bad-faith behavior when representing you. Unfortunately, losing a civil case doesn’t automatically make a lawyer guilty of malpractice.
Instead, we must carefully examine how a lawyer researched and presented your case to a judge. If we can find evidence of deliberately missed deadlines, flagrant misuse of professional resources, lost paperwork, or professional bias, we can take legal action against an offending attorney.
We can also refer to standards established by Ohio’s Board of Professional Conduct to determine whether or not an attorney operated within the ethical boundaries established by the state. Violations of this code of conduct puts an attorney’s right to continue practicing at risk.
Working With Experts to Establish Your Right to Recover
Our team knows that there are experts who have more knowledge about certain fields and practices than we do. That’s why we reach out to those experts for guidance on cases like yours. If we think your legal malpractice case would benefit from the involvement of an expert witness, we can use our professional network to secure their statements.
Calculating the Value of a Legal Malpractice Case
Your legal malpractice case comes in response to either an active or recently closed case handled by another lawyer. Our job is subsequently to investigate that original lawyer’s behavior and its impact on your previous case. In this way, legal malpractice cases often look like cases within previous cases.
The reality isn’t so complicated. We take on the brunt of the work investigating the proceedings behind your previous case. We can discuss what deadlines your previous attorney missed, what they did with missing paperwork, and how their representation of your interests fell short of the mark. We can then account for the losses you sustained as a result of their negligence.
All of this work helps us determine the value of your legal malpractice case. While our involvement can reverse the decision made by a court about a previous case, we primarily help you recover damages based on losses like professional mistreatment and unfounded legal fees. You can discuss the calculations we use during a free case consultation.
We’re a Law Firm You Can Trust
We know you’ve been burned by a law firm before. Fortunately, we’re not like the rest. We know that lawyers can abuse your trust and leave you worse off than you originally were. Let us get the justice you deserve – and the financial aid that can help you recover.
You can book a free case consultation with our legal malpractice attorneys in Columbus, OH, today. These consultations do not lock you into legal action. It is always up to you to decide whether or not you want to move a case forward.
Our team is ready to clearly outline your right to recover from legal malpractice. If you want to learn more about the tactics we use to hold attorneys accountable for dangerous legal oversights, book a free consultation with our team today.
- We Listen To You.
Share your story and how a lack of proper representation has affected your life at your initial consultation.
- We Investigate Your Claim.
We gather information, interview witnesses, and obtain all relevant legal records.
- We Work With Experts.
We hire accomplished legal experts in the area at issue to testify about how a reasonable attorney would have acted in your case.
- We Stand With You.
We are with you every step of the way, from filing court documents to trying your case in front of a jury.
Questions About Legal Malpractice Cases
Frequently Asked QuestionsWe understand that you may have questions about whether you have a case or the timing involved with filing a legal malpractice lawsuit. Here are answers to what many of our clients want to know.
Can I sue my attorney for malpractice?
Yes. Like any professional, attorneys can be sued if they fail to do what a competent professional would have done under the circumstances, or if they fail to abide by rules that govern their professional conduct in the practice of law. Here are some red flags that may indicate your lawyer has committed malpractice:
- Failing to meet a deadline imposed by a law or regulation, including a filing deadline such as a statute of limitation.
- Failing to identify a conflict of interest between the lawyer’s interests and the client’s.
- Providing representation in an area of law where the lawyer has inadequate knowledge or experience.
- Making or failing to correct significant drafting errors in contracts or other documents.
- Failing to properly investigate a matter.
- Failing to conduct and respond to discovery.
- Failing to hire and designate expert witnesses.
How do we establish what my legal malpractice lawsuit is worth?
Many times, a legal malpractice claim involves a case within a case. In those instances, our attorneys look at your original lawsuit that was botched and consider what you likely would have ended up with had it not been mishandled. Then we consider the harms and losses caused by having to bring the legal malpractice case to correct the problem.
For some claims, this is a fairly straightforward calculation. For example, if a contract dispute was negligently handled we may ask for the amount of the original contract plus funds to cover fees, missed opportunities, and any other negative effects of the claim.
For other claims, such as criminal malpractice, the harms and losses become more difficult to quantify. How do you place a price on missing out on an entire year with your children? How do you make up for a 20-year prison sentence that never should have been imposed?
In these situations, we review your case and cases like yours that have set a precedent. We look at every part of your original claim and ask “What would this client have ended up with otherwise?” From there, we can find numbers that make sense.
That’s why it’s important to work with lawyers specializing in medical malpractice. At Cooper Elliott, we understand the complex legal requirements involved with filing a medical malpractice lawsuit, and we know what it takes to win.
Why should I trust your law firm?
After a law firm has failed you, we can understand that you might want to know everything you can about us.
Since Chip Cooper and Rex Elliott co-founded Cooper Elliott law firm in 1995, they and the firm have received numerous accolades, including:
- The National Trial Lawyers Top 100
- U.S. News & World Report
- Tier 1 in the regional for personal injury litigation
- Members of the Million Dollar and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum
- Fewer than 1% of lawyers are members of this elite group of attorneys who have won million and multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements for clients.
- You can also research our firm and any Cooper Elliott attorney on peer-review websites like martindale.com and superlawyers.com.
Finally, we are invested in winning every case. Cooper Elliott uses a contingency model, which means we only get paid if you win a verdict or receive a settlement.
