A disability law firm and one of its attorneys must answer claims that they wrongly obtained and used a competitor’s client lists, the Appellate Division ruled Tuesday.

The underlying lawsuit against attorney Lorna Orak and the People’s Disability Advocates of America was wrongly dismissed based on a trial judge’s failure to properly consider whether it was subject to the entire controversy doctrine, and whether the plaintiff failed to join parties who were indispensable to the case, the appeals court said. The appeals court reversed an April 2018 ruling that dismissed the suit.