Sam, a prospective client comes into your office and brings with her a copy of a summons and complaint she was just served with. The papers were hand delivered to her by a process server seven days ago. You and the attorney discuss the merits of the case and determine that you will take her on as a client and prepare an answer. The answer is due in thirteen days. You prepare the answer, the attorney reviews it and gives it to the secretary to file and serve. The answer is now due in three days.
You take off on vacation the following week. Two days later, the attorney runs into a client in Court who mentions the $10k in cash he dropped off last week to the secretary. The attorney never received the money and suddenly realizes why his bank accounts have been short for the past few months. He calls the secretary and fires her. When he gets back to the office later that afternoon, the secretary is gone.
Three months later, Sam comes into your office irate that she was turned down for a car loan because she has a judgement against her. The bank tells her the judgment is from the same person who is named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit she hired you to defend her in. You use your crafty paralegal skills that you honed in your Civil Litigation class and discover that the answer was never filed or served and a default judgement was entered against your client.
The attorney now asks you to research whether the "law office failure" statute will cover him for this, or should file a claim with his malpractice carrier.
