Much is expected of attorneys these days, but they cannot be expected to “guarantee a perfectly functioning judiciary or an error-free trial.” So held the Texas Supreme Court in 2016′s Stanfield v. Neubaum, which addressed the novel legal question whether errors committed by a trial court can constitute a superseding cause of the client’s harm, absolving his or her attorney of legal malpractice liability for the harm caused by an adverse judgment.

In Stanfield, attorneys Brenton Stanfield, Thomas Stone, Stone & Associates, LLP, and Jimmy Van Knighton II (collectively, “Trial Counsel”) represented defendants Joe and Barbara Neubaum in a usury trial, which ended with a hefty $4 million jury verdict against the couple and pink slips for Trial Counsel. Proceeding with new counsel on appeal, the Neubaums successfully obtained reversal of the verdict, on the grounds that the trial court had issued erroneous jury instructions concerning a key question of agency liability. In an attempt to recoup the six-figure bill they incurred pursuing their appeal, the Neubaums sued Trial Counsel for malpractice—arguing that the trial court’s error would have been rendered immaterial, and that a favorable jury verdict would still have been handed down notwithstanding that error, had Trial Counsel adequately presented evidence pertaining to several other issues in the suit.

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