Opinion ID: 1862059
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: legal malpractice arising from criminal prosecution

Text: We first address the propriety of the district court's holding that exoneration is a prerequisite to a legal malpractice action arising from a criminal prosecution. [1] As noted in the dissent of Chief Judge Griffin, the majority's decision conflicts with the decision in Martin v. Pafford, 583 So.2d 736, 738 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991), which held that Martin was not required to have succeeded in obtaining collateral relief from her criminal conviction before she could civilly sue her attorney for malpractice. We find that, in a claim for legal malpractice, a plaintiff must plead and prove the following elements: (1) the attorney's employment; (2) the attorney's neglect of a reasonable duty; and (3) the attorney's negligence was the proximate cause of the client's loss. Weekley v. Knight, 116 Fla. 721, 156 So. 625 (1934). With respect to a legal malpractice suit brought by one convicted of a crime, a majority of jurisdictions have held that appellate or postconviction relief is a prerequisite to maintaining the action. See, e.g., Orr v. Black & Furci, P.A., 876 F.Supp. 1270 (M.D.Fla.1995); Streeter v. Young, 583 So.2d 1339 (Ala.1991); Shaw v. State Dep't of Admin., 816 P.2d 1358 (Alaska 1991); Glenn v. Aiken, 409 Mass. 699, 569 N.E.2d 783 (1991); Morgano v. Smith, 110 Nev. 1025, 879 P.2d 735 (1994); Carmel v. Lunney, 70 N.Y.2d 169, 518 N.Y.S.2d 605, 511 N.E.2d 1126 (1987); Stevens v. Bispham, 316 Or. 221, 851 P.2d 556 (1993); Bailey v. Tucker, 533 Pa. 237, 621 A.2d 108 (1993); Peeler v. Hughes & Luce, 868 S.W.2d 823 (Tex.Ct.App.1993), aff'd, 909 S.W.2d 494 (Tex.1995). These decisions base the appellate or postconviction relief prerequisite on the following policy arguments: (1) without obtaining relief from the conviction or sentence, the criminal defendant's own actions must be presumed to be the proximate cause of the injury; (2) monetary remedies are inadequate to redress the harm to incarcerated criminal defendants; (3) appellate, postconviction, and habeas corpus remedies are available to address ineffective assistance of counsel; (4) requiring appellate or postconviction relief prerequisite to a malpractice claim will preserve judicial economy by avoiding the relitigation of supposedly settled matters; and (5) relief from the conviction or sentence provides a bright line for determining when the statute of limitations runs on the malpractice action. We agree with the above policy considerations set forth in these cases, and we find that we should follow the majority rule and hold that a convicted criminal defendant must obtain appellate or postconviction relief as a precondition to maintaining a legal malpractice action. We also hold that the statute of limitations on the malpractice action has not commenced until the defendant has obtained final appellate or postconviction relief.