Malton v Attia, 2021 ABQB 503, establishes a clear threshold of the competence required for lawyers in claims for professional negligence against them. Established in tort as well as contract ”a lawyer’s duty under his or her retainer is to meet the standard of care of a reasonably competent member of the profession…” (para 3).
Burns J. found that the Defendant/Lawyer did not meet that standard of care for failing, among other things, to be properly prepared for the Trial and for not pursuing all the damage claims requested by the clients and not properly preparing the clients for some of the pretrial processes.
In conclusion, the Court awarded $48,620 in damages to the Client
For those interested, check out the full case on CanLii: https://canlii.ca/t/jgpcj
Ronald S. Foster, Q.C. – Senior Counsel
Family Law Solutions, Foster Dickson O’Brien
1400, 350 7th Avenue SW, Calgary Alberta T2P 3N9
T 587 315 6491
Family Law Solutions, Foster Dickson O'Brien 