Georgia Justices Urged to Revive Malpractice Suit Against Retired Barnes & Thornburg Atty
James Leonard's former client had lost previous rounds in her legal-malpractice claim stemming from a losing case against an insurance company.
February 05, 2025 at 05:52 PM
4 minute read
What You Need to Know
- Lawyers took their arguments in a legal-malpractice case to the Georgia Supreme Court Wednesday.
- A New York woman was appealing a ruling that her former Atlanta-based attorney's trial decisions were immune from liability.
Lawyers for a New York woman on Wednesday pushed the Supreme Court of Georgia to overturn an intermediate appellate court's finding that a retired Barnes & Thornburg lawyer was protected from liability stemming from an allegedly botched trial strategy in a case that's drawn attention from a number of Big Law firms in Atlanta.
David Hungeling, representing plaintiff Cynthia Cox-Ott, asked the justices to reject the idea that insurance litigator James Leonard was protected by the common law-based doctrine of judgmental immunity in a case involving alleged fraud in the sale of a life insurance policy to his client.
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