Fourth Consecutive Victory for Orange County Professional Liability Team

July 29, 2011

B. Casey Yim, assisted by Scott R. Jackman, obtained a defense verdict in a legal malpractice case using successive demurrers sustained without leave to amend.

M&C's clients, attorneys of an Orange County law firm, were cross-defendants in a legal malpractice case involving five complex commercial and real property “underlying cases.” When the clients failed to pay for extensive billed legal work, the attorneys withdrew and sued the clients for fees. The former clients then cross-claimed for legal malpractice.

M&C filed demurrers to demonstrate that the legal malpractice cross-plaintiffs could not plead any identifiable specific cause of action based on facts from any one of the five cases. The cross-complaint and amendments were a conglomeration of facts taken from all five cases. The judge ruled that the mixture of facts made the pleading inherently “uncertain,” and sustained three successive demurrers, ultimately without leave to amend. M&C's client law firm also later prevailed on their claim for the fees.

The result brings the Orange County professional liability litigation team to their fourth successive defense victory in a row in legal malpractice and medical malpractice cases over the past 12 months.