A New Jersey appeals court has dismissed a legal malpractice lawsuit filed against the Office of the Public Defender by a man who served 12 years in prison before his sexual assault conviction was overturned.
The malpractice suit by Antonio Chaparro Nieves was dismissed for failure to comply with procedural requirements of the Tort Claims Act. Nieves failed to cite medical or psychiatric expenses that can be counted toward the Tort Claims Act’s $3,600 verbal threshold, and he failed to submit objective medical evidence to establish a permanent injury and substantial loss of bodily function, the appeals court said. Those omissions violate the Supreme Court’s 2011 holding in Rogers v. Cape May Office of the Public Defender, which held that such claims are subject to the provisions of the TCA, the appeals court said in Nieves v. Office of the Public Defender.
