 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Newell v. Hudson3/16/2005
isavow the plain and unequivocal terms of the settlement, which they entered into voluntarily on the record, in open court. As defendants correctly noted, allowing plaintiffs to disavow a voluntary settlement made on the record in open court would"wreak havoc" with the judicial system. Not only would defense counsel be more reluctant to settle, out of fear that those settlements would later be set aside simply because plaintiffs changed their minds, but the attorney client relationship would also be undermined. Plaintiffs' attorneys would also be more reluctant to settle, because even if their clients agreed to a voluntary settlement, plaintiffs' counsel would be concerned that plaintiffs would sue them for malpractice at a later time.
[Id. at 772].
In Vogel v. Touhey, 828 A.2d 268 (Md. Ct. Spec. App.), cert. denied, 837 A.2d 927 (Md. 2003), the Maryland Court of Special Appeals utilized the doctrine of judicial estoppel to bar a client's legal malpractice claim based on failure to adequately perform in her underlying divorce action. The client, herself an attorney, had negotiated a property settlement agreement with her husband; thereafter she learned that her husband had failed to disclose substantial marital assets and diverted or dissipated other marital assets. She retained defendant attorney to challenge the agreement in the pending divorce action, uncover the full extent of the parties' marital assets and renegotiate a more beneficial property settlement agreement. Unhappy with the attorney's performance, she discharged him and a few days later settled her dispute with her husband for a fraction of the additional sum she had hoped to recover. The court held the client bound by her position in the divorce proceeding, noting that given the client's knowledge at the time of the divorce hearing that her attorney had failed to obtain and analyze certain of her husband's financial documents and she was not in a position to make an informed decision as to the settlement, she still represented to the master that she was fully aware of the issues and that the settlement was"fair and equitable." Id. at 716. Based on the extensive voir dire conducted by the master to establish that the settlement was a voluntary and knowing one, the court found the client's decision to settle her underlying matrimonial action to be a matter of her choice, not the product of duress or coercion. Ibid. The court dismissed her malpractice action, finding that she had created the circumstances that culminated in the claim and would derive an unfair advantage were she not estopped from asserting an inconsistent position in the malpractice action. Ibid.
Hudson's reliance on Ziegelheim v. Apollo, 128 N.J. 250 (1992), and Puder v. Buechel, 362 N.J. Super. 479 (App. Div. 2003), certif. granted, 180 N.J. 147 (2004), in support of her argument that the equitable doctrine of judicial estoppel was improperly invoked by the Law Division judge, is misplaced.
In Ziegelheim, the Court held that a client's acceptance of a negotiated matrimonial settlement did not bar her subsequent recovery from her attorney for the negligent handling of her divorce action. In that case, a plaintiff who had been married for thirty-five years retained defendant Stephen Apollo to represent her in a divorce action. During their meetings, she told him about all of the marital and separate assets of which she was aware, discussed her suspicion that her husband was either concealing or dissipating certain other assets, and requested he make a thorough inquiry into her husband's assets. She thereafter entered into a property settlement agreement which provided, among other terms, that she receive fourteen percent of the value of the m
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 New Jersey Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|