Thursday, May 20, 2010

Lockton v. O'Rourke (Cal. Ct. App. - May 20, 2010)

You can learn four lessons from this opinion:

(1) Be careful what you say in a verified complaint. It can come back to bite you. Even if you figure out later that you should have said something else and amend the complaint.

(2) If you're an attorney or law firm, make sure your fee agreement has a clause that says that the prevailing party gets its attorney's fees, including the value of any time spent by the law firm and its lawyers defending itself. That'll get you fees notwithstanding the typical rule that lawyers can't get fees if they represent themselves.

(3) When you're sued for malpractice, and win in an unpublished decision, get it published. And:

(4) Don't mess with the Mighty Quinn.