A lawyer facing a legal malpractice suit over his handling of a personal injury matter can’t bring a third-party claim against the lawyer hired to replace him, a New Jersey appeals court has ruled.
A claim by John Hoffman Jr. of Hoffman DiMuzio against his replacement, Gary Ginsberg of Ginsberg & O’Connor in Mount Laurel, failed because the medical malpractice suit was rendered “irretrievably lost” by Hoffman’s flawed tort claims notice, which occurred before the replacement counsel entered the case, the Appellate Division ruled in McNellis-Wallace v. Hoffman, a published decision issued July 31.
