.png)
Publications
Legal Updates For Construction Litigation
Governor Scott Signs HB 377
Closing the Loophole in the Statute of Repose
The material in this law alert has been prepared for our readers by Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin.
Legal Updates for Construction Litigation
Debunking Professional Negligence Liability of an Engineer in Training
The material in this law alert has been prepared for our readers by Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin.
Psychologist/psychiatrist-patient privilege extends to communications with entire facility, and attorney-client privilege covers notes a client takes at direction of attorney.
In a discovery response, the defendant asserted that she sought counseling related to the incident giving rise to the case. The plaintiff followed up with a request that she give the name and relevant information for her treatment.
Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2017. Case Law Alerts is prepared by Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin to provide information on recent developments of interest to our readers.
Insurer with the right to settle or litigate claims against their insureds is held responsible for plaintiff’s attorney’s fees and costs pursuant to rejected proposal for settlement.
Geico challenged the final judgment in an automobile insurance case holding it liable to pay the injured plaintiff’s attorney’s fees and costs.
Case Law Alerts, 3rd Quarter, July 2016
An attorney can be liable for the plaintiff’s attorneys’ fees in a legal malpractice action if the attorney intentionally breached his fiduciary duty as trustee and escrow agent, even though the attorney was not acting as the plaintiff’s attorney.
The plaintiff and his former spouse (a citizen of Spain) were in a contested divorce proceeding for custody of their daughter, a dual citizen of the United States and Spain.
Case Law Alerts, 3rd Quarter, July 2016
Without privity and no-third party beneficiary breach of contract claim, there is no standing for a breach of fiduciary duty claim.
The plaintiff, a residual beneficiary of an inter vivos trust, brought a breach of fiduciary duty claim against the defendant, the decedent’s attorney.
Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 1, 2016
Expert testimony needed for both breach of contract claim and negligence claim.
The Superior Court held that expert testimony was necessary to determine whether an attorney failed to exercise a reasonable degree of care and skill relating to the handling of a real estate transaction because the question was outside the normal
Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 1, 2016
Failure to preserve issues on appeal.
The Superior Court agreed with the trial court that the plaintiff failed to preserve any issues on appeal where his concise statement filed pursuant to Pa. R. App. P. 1925(a) was impermissibly vague and mere boilerplate.
Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 1, 2016
Attorney’s failure to assert claim in the underlying case is not malpractice when the plaintiff could not have recovered had claim been asserted.
A New Jersey appeals court affirmed the lower court’s finding that, while there was “at least a genuine issue of material fact as to whether [d]efendant breached a duty to [p]laintiff” . . .
Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2016
An attorney’s mere drafting of a document containing representation to a non-client third-party must be distinguished from the attorney having made the representation.
A New Jersey appeals court affirmed the trial court’s dismissal of third-party legal malpractice claims while reinstating the non-client plaintiffs’ claim, which alleged common-law fraud against the defendant attorney.
Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2016