Ethics and Legal Malpractice

Failing to perform legal work, neglecting cases, and failing to communicate with clients make up a large number of the ethical complaints filed against attorneys. Clients, understandably, do not have a lot of patience if their lawyer misses a deadline. Unfortunately, mistakes do happen even with computerized case management systems.

One recent lawsuit involved a mistake made by a paralegal, who apparently misread a court rule and entered a wrong filing deadline into the firm's calendar with the result being that the law firm did not file an important notice of appeal for a client on time.

On Westlaw, pull up a copy ofPincay v. Andrews, 389 F.3d 853 (9th Cir. 2004) to find out what happened. Then answer the following questions:

1. What ethical rules did the court discuss?
2. What was the court's holding?
3. What law firm made the mistake?
4. What can the law firm do to prevent themselves from making the same mistakes in the future?