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Client’s 1st lawyer not required for malpractice action
Peter Vieth//May 11, 2021//
Even though a lawyer being sued for malpractice in a divorce case was the wife’s second attorney, the first attorney is not a necessary party to the lawsuit, a federal judge has ruled.
In a May 4 opinion and order, U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel C. Hoppe denied the defendant lawyer’s bid to force the client’s first lawyer into the case.
The wife has sued Winchester attorney Phillip S. Griffin II claiming she missed out on her fair share of marital property, including a prosperous pizza restaurant, when Griffin handled her divorce.
Griffin said important work in the divorce, including discovery, had already taken place when he was hired. Griffin argued the wife’s first lawyer, Bradley Pollack of Woodstock, belongs as a defendant in the case.
No so, Hoppe ruled. Even if Pollack were a joint tortfeasor contributing to a single injury, it has long been the rule that joint tortfeasors need not all be named as defendants in a single lawsuit, the judge said.
“Pollack may be a joint tortfeasor, but this status does not make him a ‘necessary’ party to this action under Rule 19,” Hoppe wrote.
The opinion and order is Amari v. Griffin (VLW 021-3-227).
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