Missed Deadlines, Conflicts of Interest, and Other Common Legal Malpractice Issues in Texas
Legal Malpractice
When your lawyer ghosts your e-mails for weeks, the silence can sink a multi-million-dollar opportunity. Texas disciplinary files show that abandonment and poor communication form a silent epidemic in malpractice grievances. Missed discovery deadlines, unanswered settlement offers, and failure to notify clients of court dates turn routine cases into disasters.
The Kassab Law Firm helps clients recover verdicts or settlements lost because counsel failed to deliver competent, loyal service. If an attorney’s misstep cost you real money, swift action preserves evidence. Request a free case review now.
Missed Court Deadlines
A single day can erase an entire lawsuit. Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code §16.003 limits most claims to two years, and judges dismiss late pleadings without sympathy. A missed deadline can “proximately” destroy an otherwise winnable case, triggering liability for legal malpractice Texas plaintiffs.
A skilled Houston legal malpractice attorney routinely reconstructs “case-within-a-case” evidence—showing jurors the verdict you would have won had your lawyer filed on time. They use docket audits, expert calendars, and forensic e-mail pulls to pinpoint the exact moment negligence occurred and to quantify lost judgment value.
Conflicts of Interest
Undivided loyalty lies at the heart of the attorney-client relationship, yet conflicts of interest still rank among the most frequent grievances filed with the State Bar of Texas. A conflict exists whenever a lawyer’s own financial, professional, or personal stake—or the interests of another current or former client—materially limits that lawyer’s ability to give objective advice.
Warning signs include representing both sides of a transaction, accepting referral fees from an opponent’s insurer, or owning stock in a corporation suing a different client. Once divided allegiance is proven, every strategic choice becomes suspect: settlement recommendations, discovery requests, even the selection of qualified witnesses may have been tilted to protect the lawyer’s outside interests.
Faulty Legal Advice & Research
Texas appellate dockets repeatedly underscore that inadequate legal research drives a significant share of malpractice verdicts. Errors manifest in many guises: citing repealed statutes, overlooking controlling precedent, miscalculating limitations periods, or copying boiler-plate contract clauses unsuited to the client’s industry. Because attorneys serve as legal interpreters for hire, courts judge their performance against the reasonably prudent practitioner standard.
To prevail, plaintiffs must show that competent counsel would have delivered different advice and that the deviation directly caused financial harm. Courts regularly award consequential damages, pre-judgment interest, and litigation costs once causal links are established.
Barratry & Illegal Solicitation
Unwanted calls or hospital-room visits from “runners” violate Texas Penal Code §38.12 and open the door to civil penalties of $10,000 per violation. Victims may add barratry counts to malpractice cases if the same attorney’s unlawful recruitment later morphs into negligent representation. A seasoned Houston barratry attorney leverages these penalties to multiply settlement pressure. Courts have upheld treble damages where systematic schemes ensnare vulnerable victims. Document every call and visit promptly, and preserve texts or business cards; those small items can transform a modest error claim into a seven-figure settlement before evidence disappears forever.
Fee Abuse & Financial Misconduct
Financial misconduct often masquerades as creative billing until a closer look reveals breach of fiduciary duty. Texas Disciplinary Rule 1.14 requires attorneys to safeguard client funds and provide detailed accounting, yet grievances cite overbilling, double-charged expenses, and outright theft from trust accounts. Warning signals include invoices rounded to the hour on every entry, unexplained wire transfers from Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts, or sudden “success fees” added without written amendment. Plaintiffs can seek disgorgement of every dollar paid, return of misdirected settlements, and statutory treble damages for civil theft.
Abandonment & Poor Communication
Failure to return calls is more than rude—it can breach the duty of diligence under Texas Rule 1.01. When clients never receive critical motions, discovery requests, or settlement offers, courts view the silence as constructive abandonment. A top-rated legal malpractice attorney in Dallas, TX often pairs abandonment allegations with missed-deadline claims to prove systemic neglect, boosting total recovery.
File a Claim Against a Negligent Attorney in Texas
When missed filings, conflicted loyalties, shoddy research, or illegal solicitations drain the value of your case, The Kassab Law Firm deploys board-certified trial skill and statewide precedent to turn negligence into compensation. Preserve evidence, stop the statute clock, and place a proven malpractice attorney in Houston between you and further loss—call us today.