Professional Responsibility: Oregon finds that convicted defendant can bring malpractice claim against lawyers for mishandling post conviction appeal

Prof. Alberto Bernabe reports:

Professional Responsibility: Oregon finds that convicted defendant can bring malpractice claim against lawyers for mishandling post conviction appeal: "the Oregon Supreme Court recently ruled, however, that a convicted criminal defense client need not obtain exoneration of the underlying offense before suing his or her lawyers. The case is called Drollinger v. Mallon, and it is available HERE. The case is slightly different because the plaintiff's allegation was that the lawyer was negligent in handling a post-conviction appeal. The court found that exoneration is not required in the post-conviction malpractice setting because the policies underlying the exoneration requirement in an action involving alleged trial malpractice do not apply to an action in which a client's failure to obtain post-conviction relief is the heart of the case."

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