Professional Liability Attorneys Obtain Complete Dismissal Against Claims of $1M in Legal Malpractice Case

Background

Plaintiff was the trustee of a family trust that brought suit on behalf of the trust’s beneficiaries. In the underlying lawsuit, the beneficiaries asserted claims against the previous corporate trustee, who was represented by our law firm client. The actions taken by our clients in their representation of the former trustee formed the basis of Plaintiff’s claims in the current lawsuit. Plaintiff claimed that Defendants breached fiduciary duties owed to the Trust’s beneficiaries through their representation of the corporate trustee in the underlying litigation. Plaintiff sought more than $1 million in damages through claims for breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and conversion.

Attorney Immunity to Non-Clients

The Court reviewed (1) whether attorney immunity barred Plaintiff’s claims asserted against Defendants; (2) whether Defendants owed the trust beneficiaries fiduciary duties; and (3) whether Plaintiff’s claims infringed on Defendants’ right to petition. Under the doctrine of attorney immunity, attorneys are immune from civil liability to non-clients for actions taken in connection with representing a client. Additionally, as a matter of law, an attorney for a trustee solely represents the trustee; the trustee’s attorney does not represent the Trust or the Trust’s beneficiaries.

The Court found that attorney immunity barred all of Plaintiff’s claims. The Court reasoned that all of the actions Plaintiff complained of were taken by Defendants in the course of their representation of the client. These actions were well within the ordinary course of representing the client in litigation. Additionally, the Court found that our clients—attorneys of an adversarial party in litigation—did not, and cannot, owe the trust beneficiaries any duties, including fiduciary duties. As such, attorney immunity applied to bar all of Plaintiff’s claims.