The Appellate Division has overturned a legal malpractice verdict against an attorney accused of negligence for failing to file a tort claims notice on behalf of his client.

The Middlesex County judgment, entered against Spring Lake attorney Charles Shaw III in 2017, carried a damages award of $55,000. But the appeals court said the evidence did not present a prima facie claim for legal malpractice, because plaintiff Marianne Murphy’s claims against the Hazlet police department and one of its officers for malicious prosecution and spoliation were not ripe during the period that Shaw represented her.