Quality control is ever more important!
The Florida Supreme Court recently ruled that legal malpractice can be alleged against an attorney or law firm by a third party who had not retained the lawyer's or law firm's services.
In March, the Court held that a third party that relied on the lawyer's professional services -- even if those services were rendered on behalf of another -- can sue if the lawyer failed to exercise due diligence and proper care and thereby damaged the third party.
In Cowan Liebowitz & Latman, P.C., et al. v. Donald Kaplan, the Supreme Court permitted creditors of an insolvent corporation to sue the lawyers who represented the corporation. The creditors accused the lawyers of failing to disclose material information in private placement memoranda for the sale of shares in the soon-to-be-insolvent company, Medical Research Industries Inc.
This is a new standard that should give pause to lawyers in the giving of advice to clients ... It also means that "rogue lawyers" must be controlled effectively by their firm's quality control committee ... It also means that law firms need to create quality control processes and standards!
