Legal negligence is legal negligence whether it was committed by an in-house attorney or retained counsel, the California’s 4th District Court of Appeal held last week.
Nor does it matter if the negligent in-house counsel was also a corporate officer, so long as his negligent actions were tied to his legal duties, the court ruled. So when the general counsel of G&M Oil Co. all but ignored a wage-and-hour class action filed by a company employee, an Orange County, Calif., trial judge properly set aside the $4 million default judgment, Justice David Sills wrote for the unanimous appellate court (pdf).
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
