Tag Archives: Malpractice

Claims Attorney Opening

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The OSB Professional Liability Fund is seeking a full-time claims attorney to join its Claims Department.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities include managing a caseload of lawyer professional liability claims and working with covered attorneys and outside counsel on a broad range of matters involving lawyer professional liability.

Requirements

Oregon State Bar membership, a minimum of five years of private practice experience in the State of Oregon, and proficiency in MS Office applications. Insurance coverage experience is helpful.

Compensation

Competitive salary, plus excellent retirement, health insurance, and other benefits. 

Application Deadline

Application deadline is December 11, 2020.

How to Apply

Applications will not be accepted via telephone calls or inquiries.

Please email cover letter and resume to: 

Madeleine Campbell 
PLF General Counsel 
Email: HR@osbplf.org

About the PLF

The Oregon State Bar Board of Governors created the Professional Liability Fund in 1977 pursuant to state statute (ORS 9.080) and with approval of the membership. The PLF first began operation on July 1, 1978, and has been the mandatory provider of primary malpractice coverage for Oregon lawyers since that date. Learn more here.

Equal Opportunity Employer

The PLF is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at the PLF are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national origin, gender, sexual orientation or identity, age, disability, family or parental status, or any other status protected by applicable laws or regulations. Candidates from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply. 

New ABA Study on Malpractice Claims

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Approximately every four years since 1985, the American Bar Association has published a “Profile of Legal Malpractice Claims.” Plaintiffs’ personal injury and family law are the most frequent source of claims, according to the latest profile. Although the Profile does not correlate the severity of claims by practice area, the Profile’s “anecdotal observations” section suggests  that business and commercial law have traditionally been higher-risk areas on this score…

Risk Management by the Numbers: New ABA Study on Malpractice Claims — NWSidebar

Closer to Home

It is no particular surprise that Oregon mirrors the national statistics.

In 2019, the most recent year for which data is available, personal injury, domestic relations, and bankruptcy/debtor-creditor law top the list for frequency of claims in our state. They do not, however, represent the biggest payout. In fact, they don’t make the list.

If your concern is cost, look to business transactions, securities, other civil litigation, tax/non profit law, intellectual property, and construction.

Here are the details:

Don’t become a statistic

The risk of a legal malpractice claim can be greatly reduced by taking advantage of practice management resources. HOW you run your practice matters as much – or more – than the area of law you choose. Reading blogs, getting advice, and scheduling a webinar are all ways to educate yourself on malpractice traps.

Learning to manage your workflow and properly track deadlines is a must. So is managing your time. Reach out if you need help or have questions. Take advantage of PLF and OAAP resources. Getting your systems and procedures in order is the single most effective step any lawyer can take to manage the risk of a claim. This applies to those practicing in larger firms too. Your firm supplies the software and procedures, but when it comes down to managing your personal caseload that’s up to you.

All Rights Reserved 2020 Beverly Michaelis

Procrastination in the Time of COVID

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procrastination31

Do you find yourself avoiding work? Feeling anxious or stressed? Dreading what you might read in emails or hear in voicemails?

You are experiencing procrastination. And possibly depression. With the upheaval COVID has brought to our lives, getting up in the morning may feel challenging.

Understanding and addressing procrastination is difficult. One of the better explanations appeared in a post on The Productive Mindset:

  • Procrastination is not a time-management problem.
  • Procrastinators often have anxiety or doubts about their abilities, or about the perception others have of their abilities.
  • Many procrastinators would prefer others think they lack drive instead of providing the opportunity for others to question their capabilities.
  • Underlying fear of failure or fear of success is common among procrastinators.
  • Depression and procrastination go hand-in-hand.

Fear, Anxiety, and Doubt

While the original Mindset post is no longer available, Googling “the psychology and behaviors of procrastination” reinforces that fear, anxiety, and doubt are major players here. Factor in a major life change – like a pandemic – and the stress ratchets up threefold.

Does This Sound Like You?

  1. Do you put off taking care of important things to the point of jeopardizing relationships, career, finances, or health?
  2. Do you put off doing what you need to do until a crisis develops?
  3. Do you put off doing tasks unless you can do them perfectly or until you can find the perfect time to do them?
  4. Do you hesitate taking necessary action because you fear change?
  5. Do you think about things you’d like to do but rarely get around to doing them?
  6. Do you believe that projects or tasks will somehow take care of themselves?
  7. Do you overcommit yourself?
  8. Do you tend to do only what you want to do instead of what you should do?
  9. Do you tend to do only what you think you should do instead of what you want to do?

Adapted from It’s About Time, by Dr. Linda Sapadin with Jack Maguire [Procrastination Self Test.]

Ending the Paralysis and Self Sabotage

We all procrastinate occasionally. But if putting things off is affecting your practice, home life, health, or finances – don’t struggle alone. Oregon lawyers are encouraged to contact an Attorney Counselor at the Oregon Attorney Assistance Program (OAAP) any time for help with this issue. The OAAP is free and confidential. They are an excellent resource if you are experiencing depression, which is often the real story behind procrastination.

You can read more about the paralysis of procrastination here.

All Rights Reserved 2020 Beverly Michaelis

Failure to Check Spam Folder Leads to Missed Deadline

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Court notices delivered via email are a known point of vulnerability for law firms: failure to timely check messages, accidental deletion of court notices, or haphazard review of spam folders.

Now The Researching Paralegal reports on the latest variation of this theme.

A trial court clerk in Florida served an order by email awarding a significant amount of attorney fees to the prevailing party (appellee).  The opponent/appellant claimed it did not receive the order, resulting in its failure to file an appeal.  What happened? The opponent/appellant’s email system automatically deleted the court’s email as spam.

The opponent/appellant asked the court to vacate the original order on the grounds of excusable neglect.  The trial court declined and Florida’s First District Court of Appeal affirmed. The Researching Paralegal cites these factors:

First, the review of the court clerk’s email logs confirmed that the email with the court’s order was served and received by the law firm’s server. Second, the law firm’s email configuration made it impossible to determine whether the firm’s server received the email. Third, the law firm’s former IT specialist’s advice against this configuration flaw was deliberately rejected by the law firm because its alternative cost more money.

The trial court concluded the law firm made a conscious decision to use a defective email configuration merely to save money, which was not “excusable neglect.”

Another nail in the coffin was testimony by the appellee’s attorney. His firm assigned a paralegal to check the court’s website every three weeks to safeguard that his firm would not miss any orders or deadlines.  The court held that the appellant had a duty to check the court’s electronic docket.

Emerald Coast Utilities Authority v. Bear Marcus Pointe, LLC, Case No. 1D15-5714, Fla: Dist. Court of Appeals, 1st Dist (2017).

What can we learn from Emerald Coast?

  1. Whitelist important email. Set your spam or junk email filters to allow receipt of messages from approved senders or domains. Include courts, administrative agencies, key clients, opposing counsel, and any other senders whose email you don’t want to miss.
  2. Review spam quarantine summaries daily. Aggressive spam filters will occasionally block senders and domains you have added to your whitelist if the filter finds content in the email to be possible spam.  Addresses and domains may also change, causing new notices to be marked as spam.
  3. Don’t forget to look at your junk mail folder, another place where legitimate messages can land.
  4. Check online court dockets. Weekly will work for most firms; others may need to login daily, depending on case volume.
  5. Listen to your IT staff.  Here, the IT specialist argued against automatic deletion of junk and spam messages and recommended hiring a third-party vendor to handle spam filtering.  He also suggested investing in an online backup system, another idea rejected by the law firm.  Following either of these recommendations may have prevented the firm from missing the deadline.

A few more takeaways

  • It should be clear, but just in case:  everyone needs a backup system. If you can’t afford the cost of an online subscription, buy an external hard drive on sale and use the backup utility built into your operating system.  For backup protocols and additional backup options, see How to Backup Your Computer from the Professional Liability Fund (Practice Management > Forms > Technology).
  • Can’t afford a third-party vendor for spam filtering or another IT task?  Understandable, but the work itself still needs to get done. This may mean you, your partner, or your staff.  Technology is a tool, not a substitute for human judgment.

There are some other interesting twists and turns in Emerald Coast.  For example, the law firm also refused to join in on a motion for a case management conference – a step that would have likely revealed the existence of the attorney fee award.  Additionally, automatic deletion of spam wasn’t the only email configuration procedure that caused problems for this office.  If you have a few moments, read the full opinion here.

Beverly Michaelis – All Rights Reserved 2017