Legal Malpractice
Definition
An action available to a party in a judicial proceeding against his or her legal counsel on the ground that the counsel has acted negligently. Legal malpractice may be an action based on contract law or tort law. To succeed on a legal malpractice claim, the plaintiff must prove that but for the counsel’s legal malpractice, he or she would have succeeded in the underlying action giving rise to the legal malpractice.