Court Opinion

ID: 9757632
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:50:21.136502+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:41.729912
License: Public Domain

OPINION DISSENTING FROM OVERRULING OF MOTION FOR REHEARING EN BANC REVIEW
TIM TAFT, Justice.
The Panel Opinion recognized the rule that expert testimony is necessary to prove the element of causation in a legal malpractice case, but claimed an exception exists where the causal relationship between the attorney’s negligence and the client’s loss is so obvious that lay persons are competent to resolve the issue. As a threshold issue, I question whether such an exception exists. The only authorities cited for such an exception were a Texas Court of Appeals decision reversed on other grounds and a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision.
Even if such an exception existed, however, the Panel Opinion did not set out any evidence that the federal bankruptcy judge would have made a different decision if a different lawyer had been trying the lawsuit and additional evidence had been submitted. Thus, I am perplexed how a jury of lay persons could be expected to make that decision without expert help.
*663The Panel Opinion is lengthy, and it presents a great deal of evidence about what evidence should have been presented by whom, and even expert evidence regarding appellees’ negligence. I do not see a single shred of evidence, however, that a different decision would have been made by the federal bankruptcy judge in the face of the evidence appellants claim should have been introduced by Tom Alexander, himself. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent from the en banc decision to deny motion for rehearing.