Professional Negligence Law Reporter

Collins v. White, 2018 WL 6434784 (Ky. Ct. App. Dec. 7, 2018).

A Kentucky appellate court held that a legal negligence suit may go forward even where the clients in the underlying suit failed to appeal the dismissal of their claim. Here, Brooks and Linda Collins retained attorney Joseph White to handle their personal injury claim against a dental school and others. The attorney filed the claim, but the trial court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss on limitations grounds. The Collinses retained another attorney, who told them that the trial court’s decision had been proper, and an appeal would lack merit. The couple then sued White for legal malpractice. White moved to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. He argued that the plaintiffs’ claim was not ripe for review because they had failed to appeal the underlying trial court decision. The trial court hearing the malpractice claim granted dismissal.

Reversing, the appellate court noted that applicable case law holds that a client may claim improper dismissal resulting from attorney negligence where the attorney refuses to handle the client’s appeal or where the client consults another attorney, who advises that the trial court’s decision had been proper. The limitations period on such a malpractice claim begins at either of those points, the court said. Finding that the plaintiffs’ claims fall within the second scenario, the court held that the trial court had subject matter jurisdiction over the couple’s legal negligence suit. Accordingly, the court remanded.

Plaintiff counsel: Jeremy Aldridge, Elizabethtown, Ky.