Opinion ID: 1163359
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Risk.

Text: Here, the risk involved is the possibility of injury to a sophisticated third party lender. Typically, financing transactions carry some degree of risk that the deal will fail. No question exists that legal opinion letters serve as valuable tools in financing transactions to help evaluate these risks. See Committee on Legal Opinions, Third Party Legal Opinions, 47 Bus.Law. 167 (1991-92). Because financing transactions have some inherent risk, whether liability should be imposed depends not only on the existence of the risk, but also upon whether the opinion writer is rightly considered an insurer or guarantor of the expression of professional judgment. [20] The comments to Restatement (Second) of Torts section 552 explain one who relies upon information in connection with a commercial transaction may reasonably expect to hold the maker to a duty of care only in circumstances in which the maker was manifestly aware of the use to which the information was to be put and intended to supply it for that purpose. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 552 cmt. a. While counsel was aware that the opinions would be relied upon to evaluate the merit of the existing lawsuit and the risk of harm, nowhere in the record nor the letters does it indicate that counsel knew the purpose of the opinion was to transform them from advisors to insurers.