Attorney-client relationships, like most relationships, can be good or bad. Sometimes they begin well, but circumstances can change rapidly, right in the middle of a case. This may be due to a lack of communication or due to misunderstandings. In some cases, a mistake, or a perceived mistake, by the attorney causes the client to seek new representation. The client will inevitably look to the new attorney to fully repair the prior mistake and get the case back on track. The new attorney is handed a wonderful opportunity to become a hero by fixing what seemed to be unfixable, and eventually obtaining a desirable result for the client. However, in doing so, the new attorney may face a number of risks.
While rife with opportunity, these scenarios create a challenge for the replacement counsel, who must overcome the mistakes, errors, or poor performance of prior legal counsel. This challenge is magnified by the risk that if there is any potential legal malpractice liability arising from prior counsel’s work, that potential liability becomes a shared risk between both the old attorney and the new one.
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