Mistakes made by an attorney can have significant, costly consequences for his or her client. As such, California law provides for individuals and organizations to recover loses in incidents where their legal counsel failed to perform according to the standards of the profession. This is known as legal malpractice, a very specialized area of the law that is typically handled by a personal injury lawyer specializing in prosecuting these types of cases. Though this area of the law falls under personal injury, such an attorney is commonly referred to simply as a legal malpractice attorney.
Just failing to win a case is not sufficient grounds on which to file a suit against an attorney and win damages. At least four criteria must be met that prove that an attorney breached his duty to the client:
Proof of negligence Attorney negligence occurs when the lawyer fails to use the care and skill that would be reasonably expected by other lawyers in similar circumstances. For example, when lawyer negligence fails to procure expert testimony in a case with technical detail (such as in a medical malpractice lawsuit).