We will return with the second part of how you are incorrectly utilizing your IOLTA account, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently issued two major professional liability opinions that address important questions in legal malpractice and wrongful use of civil proceedings cases.  On Dec. 22, 2020, in the dark depths of winter 2020, shortly after Hanukkah ended, just before Christmas, a little before Kwanzaa, and the day after the Winter Solstice, the Supreme Court issued a holiday present for Pennsylvania lawyers with its decisions in the matters of Clark v. Stover, 242 A.3d 1253 (Pa. 2020) and Raynor v. D’Annunzio, 243 A.3d 41, 43 (Pa. 2020).

‘Clark v. Stover’

Clark resolved an important question regarding when the statute of limitations begins to run in legal malpractice cases. In Clark, the Supreme Court declined to adopt the “continuous representation rule” that would toll the statute of limitations for professional liability actions against an attorney as long as the attorney-client relationship continues. I previously wrote about the Superior Court’s decision in September 2019. As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision, Pennsylvania will continue to rely upon the “occurrence rule” under which the statutory period commences upon the happening of the alleged breach of duty.