Right to compensation if a lawsuit is lost due to a lawyer’s error and an appeal is not filed because the lawyer does not release the client from the costs of the appeal process.
In a case of the Federal Court of Justice, the judges of the responsible senate made it clear once again that a client can demand exemption from the costs of appeals from his lawyer if the first instance is lost due to a lawyer error has been. If the lawyer refuses to free his client from the further legal costs and therefore no appeal is made, the client can claim damages from the lawyer.
You can have appeal lawyers from Brownstone Law Firm if you face any difficulty.
The case concerned a sales representative who legally requested payment of her services from her client. However, since the commercial agent’s lawyer presented her claim insufficiently and inconclusively, the commercial agent lost the trial in the first instance due to this lawyer’s mistake.
When the sales representative subsequently asked her lawyer to pay the costs of the second instance, the latter refused. Therefore, the sales representative did not appeal.
- Obligation to assume the costs
Finally, the sales representative sued her former lawyer for damages.
The sued lawyer defended himself by claiming that the plaintiff, despite his refusal to pay the costs of the next instance, should have appealed at his own risk. He further claimed that the lawsuit would have been won and the damage would not have occurred had the applicant appealed. He was not obliged to advance the costs of the next instance, but most should have paid the costs of the appeal after losing the second instance.
However, the responsible Senate of the Federal Court of Justice saw this differently:
A lawyer who loses a trial due to a lawyer error is obliged to take all possible further steps free of charge if these steps can prevent damage.
It is therefore not the fault of the plaintiff that she has not lodged an appeal since the sued lawyer refused to release the plaintiff from costs. In such a case, the plaintiff may waive the appeal.
The conclusion:
Important notice for lawyers:
In such a case, it is in the lawyer’s own interest to relieve the client of the costs of the appointment process! Because this is the only opportunity to possibly iron out the error of the first instance. However, the prerequisite should be that the client would very likely have won the case without the lawyer’s mistake. Because the client bears the burden of proof in the recourse process, that it would have won the preliminary process. Many legal liability lawsuits often fail because the client cannot provide just this evidence between the violation of a legal obligation and causal damage.
The lawyer must analyze whether and how the desired goal of his client can be achieved. The lawyer must protect the client from foreseeable and avoidable disadvantages. The lawyer has the principle of the safest way unless the client deliberately wants to take a certain risk. The lawyer will have to document this.
