Overview
New Jersey Legal Malpractice Law and Litigation Ethics is intended to provide a comprehensive and easy to use reference for lawyers handling malpractice cases and ethics cases and to provide guidance to litigators who are often faced with complex issues unique to the trial bar. This book is structured to discuss the issues that often complicate the practice of our profession, from the initiation of the attorney-client relationship, the duties to the Court, client, counsel and also to persons who are not clients, to the elements of the cause of action for legal malpractice, proximate causation, damages, evidence and related issues. Each chapter contains detailed subheadings to allow users to quickly find the discussion of the relevant issues. The chapters in New Jersey Legal Malpractice Law and Litigation Ethics include: Chapter 1: The Duties and Responsibilities of a Lawyer to a Client or Former Client. Chapter 2: The Duties and Responsibilities of a Lawyer to a Non-Client Chapter 3: The Elements of Legal Malpractice Chapter 4: Proximate Causation in Legal Malpractice Cases Chapter 5: Damages in Legal Malpractice Cases Chapter 6: Expert Testimony and Evidence Issues in Legal Malpractice Cases Chapter 7: Pleadings and Defenses in Legal Malpractice Cases
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Description
he granting of a license to practice law confers privileges, and imposes responsibilities, obligations, and rules of conduct that are unique to the members of the Bar. "The practice of law is a profession, not a business. An attorney is not merely a hired gun, but, rather, a professional required to act with candor and honesty." Justice Vanderbilt observed that lawyers are held to the highest standard of ethics, and an attorney must be honest dealing with the Courts, the Bar, clients, and the public. "In addition to the duties and obligations of an attorney to his client, he is responsible to the courts, to the profession of the law, and to the public... He is bound even in the absence of the attorney client relation to a more rigid standard of conduct than required of laymen." It is perhaps for this reason the practice of law is regulated by the Rules of Professional Conduct, a unique code of conduct with core values of honesty and respect for the rights of all. The New Jersey Supreme Court has stated that the RPCs "shall govern the conduct of the members of the bar." The RPCs are so intertwined with the practice of law that the RPCs often are evidence of the standard of care.
The practice of law exposes lawyers to potential conflicts of interest and obligations of confidentiality that are also unique to our profession. It is with these thoughts in mind that we address the issues lawyers must resolve in order to fulfill their obligations to clients, Courts, the legal profession and the public. We hope that this text will help the Bar successfully navigate the minefields that sometimes are encountered in the practice of law.
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About the author
Abbott S. Brown is a certified civil trial attorney whose practice focuses on medical and legal malpractice litigation. A partner with Lomurro, Munson, Comer, Brown, & Schottland, P.A., in Freehold, New Jersey, Mr. Brown received his J.D. in 1978 from
Rutgers University School of Law, Newark. He is admitted to practice in New Jersey and before the U.S. District Court for the Districts of New Jersey and the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, and the Second and Third Circuit Courts of Appeal. Mr. Brown has been counsel for one or more bar associations as amicus curiae in 12 published malpractice decisions, including Cornblatt v. Barow, 153 N.J. 218 (1998) , Ferreira v. Rancocas Orthopedic Associates, 178 N.J. 144 (2003) Ferreira v. Rancocas Orthopedic Assoc., 178 N.J. 144 (2001), and Nicholas v. Mynster, 213 N.J. 463 (2013).
Mr. Brown served on the Supreme Court Committee on Jury Selection and Voir Dire from 2004-2010, the Supreme Court Committee on Model Civil Jury Charges from 1998-2009, where he served on the medical malpractice sub-committee, and the Board of Governors of the New Jersey Association for Justice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America - New Jersey) from 1996 to 2011. He has also served on the District V-B Ethics Committee, as Chair of the Medical Malpractice Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association and on the Special Committee on Implementation of a Pilot Medical Malpractice Mediation project. Mr. Brown was an Adjunct Professor at Seton Hall University School of Law in the Health Law and Policy Program, teaching medical malpractice law between 1998 and 2012. He has also lectured at the New Jersey Judicial College and delivered more than 70 lectures for N.J.I.C.L.E., the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the New Jersey Association for Justice, the New Jersey State Bar Association, and other organizations.
Mr. Brown is also the author of New Jersey Medical Malpractice Cases, 3rd Ed. (NJICLE 2009) and a chapter titled "Medical Experts" in New Jersey Trial and Evidence Law (NJICLE 2003). He has written more than 35 articles for numerous professional publications, and had opinion or editorials published in the New York Times, The Star-Ledger, and the New Jersey Law Journal. Mr. Brown was awarded the Gold Medal for Distinguished Service by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America – New Jersey in April 2001. He was named as one of New Jersey's "Top Ten Lawyers" in 2006 and named one of New Jersey's "Top 100 Lawyers" in 2005 and every year since 2007. In April 2012, Mr. Brown was recognized by NJBIZ as one of the 50 Most Powerful People in New Jersey Healthcare.
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