A fundamental of legal malpractice avoidance is that hiding your head in the sand is one of the worst reactions an attorney can have to a problem. Most problems facing attorneys can be fixed if they are addressed promptly. A failure to act often will cause a snowball effect where a relatively small or simple problem becomes a big problem. However, there is one reaction that is even worse than hiding your head in the sand, and that is lying to try and hide an error. As the Nixon era saying goes, "it's not the crime, it's the coverup."

A recent opinion out the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, along with its companion disciplinary opinion exemplifies this issue in tragi-comic terms. The opinion in FCS Capital v. Thomas, No. CV 20-5580 (E.D. Pa. 2022) (J. Kenney) is a treatise on how not to practice law and on how not to respond to issues when they occur. The decision is interesting, and very unusual, because it involves a grant of a motion for summary judgement for the plaintiff in a legal malpractice action. The defendant, Joshua Thomas, was self represented in the legal malpractice action.