Our Experience with Legal Malpractice Litigation

The legal malpractice attorneys at Starrs Mihm LLP are among the most experienced in the Rocky Mountain region at handling complex attorney professional liability cases. The following is a sample of the lawyers' professional liability cases handled by our lawyers:

Negligent Handling of Underlying Medical Malpractice Case

Elizabeth Starrs and Betsy Hyatt represented the plaintiff in this legal malpractice case involving the lawyer's mishandling of the plaintiff's underlying podiatry malpractice claims arising from an experimental procedure that eventually led to the plaintiff's below-the-knee amputation. After an eight day trial, the jury found the lawyer negligent and liable for breach of the contingency fee contract and awarded the plaintiff $1.15 million in damages. This was, by all accounts, the largest jury verdict in the history of Montrose County, Colorado.

Negligent Advice about Business Opportunities (for the Plaintiffs).

Michael Mihm and Booka Smith recently defended the owners of a start-up energy conservation company in a lawsuit brought by a former business partner who claimed that our clients had misappropriated his business opportunities. Mr. Mihm and Ms. Smith also pursed a legal malpractice case against the lawyer who had advised our clients that they could take the business opportunity. The case settled for a confidential amount before trial. District Court, Jefferson County, Colorado.

Negligent Representation in Sale of a Gold Mine (for the Plaintiff). Michael Mihm recently represented a company in a legal malpractice claim against a lawyer who mishandled our client’s purchase of one of Colorado’s richest hard rock gold mines. The case settled for a confidential amount.

Negligent Handling of a Corporate Squeeze Out/Intellectual Property Lawsuit (for the Plaintiff).

Michael Mihm recently represented clients against their former lawyer, who had mishandled a lawsuit in which our clients alleged that they had been “squeezed out” of a successful web-based business and that the defendant had stolen the company’s intellectual property and data base and had formed another business conducting the same activities under a new name. Mr. Mihm established that the defendant lawyer had mishandled the case from the very beginning. The case settled for a confidential amount prior to trial. District Court, Jefferson County, Colorado.

Improper Advice Regarding Settlement (for the Defense).

Elizabeth Starrs defended a lawyer and his firm against the plaintiff's claims that the lawyer improperly advised her when she settled her underlying divorce case. After a nine-day jury trial, the jury returned a verdict for the defense, finding no liability, causation, or damages. Ms. Starrs successfully defended the jury's verdict on appeal. District Court, City and County of Denver, Colorado.

Securities Fraud (for the Plaintiffs).

Michael Mihm represented the SEC receiver of an electric power company engaged in selling unregistered securities. We prosecuted a legal malpractice/securities fraud lawsuit against the lawyers and law firms who authored legal opinions stating that partnership interests were not securities and were not required to be registered, when the partnership interests clearly were securities. The power company sold millions of dollars of the unregistered securities to unsuspecting investors. We settled with most of the defendants for a substantial amount before trial. After a 15-day jury trial against the remaining defendant lawyer, the jury found there was no proximate cause between the lawyer's actions and the investors' losses, and found in favor of the remaining defendant. District Court, City and County of Denver, Colorado.

Legal Malpractice Lawsuit against a Judge (for the Plaintiff).

Michael Mihm represented a woman who suffered bilateral knee injuries in an automobile accident, including a torn meniscus. The accident left her with chronic pain and reduced earning capacity. She hired a law firm to file a personal injury action against the other driver. Her lawyers failed to timely endorse an expert witness and failed to properly prepare the case. After her lead lawyer was appointed a Colorado district judge, her case was dismissed because her lawyer had missed deadlines. We sued the law firm and the judge. We subsequently discovered that the defendant lawyers failed to disclose a significant conflict of interest. We settled the case for $185,000 through an Offer of Judgment. U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

Aiding and Abetting a Breach of Fiduciary Duty - Oppression of Minority Shareholders (for the Defense).

Michael Mihm and Elizabeth Hyatt represented one of Colorado's leading business law firms in a lawsuit filed by a minority member of a technology company who alleged that he was squeezed out of his ownership interest in the company, and alleging that the defendant law firm aided and abetted the majority owners' breach of their fiduciary duties. The jury found in favor of our client after a 9-day jury trial. District Court, City and County of Denver, Colorado.

Elder Abuse and Fraud (for the Plaintiff).

Michael Mihm and Elizabeth Hyatt represented a personal representative of a Colorado estate seeking to recover millions of dollars misappropriated from an elderly woman by her son and daughter-in-law with the alleged assistance of a Rhode Island lawyer and others. We settled with one of the law firm defendants on the first day of trial. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the remaining defendants. The summary judgment was later upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in an unpublished decision. United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Lawyers’ Professional Liability Insurance Coverage Limits (for the Plaintiffs).

Starrs Mihm LLP represented two groups of plaintiffs who brought separate claims for professional negligence and breach of fiduciary duty against the same lawyer. The lawyer was insured under a policy that provided coverage limits of $500,000 per claim up to $1,000,000 per year. The lawyer's insurance company agreed to pay the per-claim limits of $500,000, less minimal accrued costs of defense under the policy, for both sets of claims. The insurer refused, however, to pay the full annual aggregate limits of coverage, arguing that the plaintiffs' claims were not separate but instead were "related". The United States District Court for the District of Colorado ruled in the plaintiffs' favor and held that each group of plaintiffs was entitled to separate per-claim limits under the lawyer's insurance policy. This ruling was recently affirmed by the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Breach of Fiduciary Duty (for the Defense).

Michael Mihm represented a prominent Colorado real estate law firm in a three-week jury trial in which the plaintiff, a prominent Aspen real estate developer and art dealer, alleged that the firm breached a fiduciary duty. The jury returned an inconsistent verdict, finding no proximate cause, but awarded modest damages against our client law firm. The Colorado Court of Appeals partially reversed the verdict. District Court, County of Pitkin, Colorado.

Real Estate and Land Use (for the Defense).

Michael Mihm represented a prominent Colorado real estate law firm in a two-week jury trial in which the plaintiffs, a wealthy Hollywood producer and his wife, claimed the defendant law firm failed to inform them that their multi-million dollar home was in an avalanche zone. After a two-week trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of our client law firm. District Court, County of Pitkin County, Colorado.

Illegal Tax Shelters (for the Defense).

Michael Mihm defended a Denver tax lawyer and his law firm in a case in which more than 180 investors in tax-shelter partnerships alleged that the defendant lawyer had negligently authored a tax opinion that resulted in an IRS audit, causing the business to fail. The plaintiffs sought $14 million. After a 3-week trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of our clients. District Court, City and County of Denver, Colorado.

Malicious Prosecution - Government Contracts (for the Defense).

Michael Mihm represented a Colorado Chief Deputy Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General in a two-week bench trial of a malicious prosecution case brought by the defendants in a white-collar criminal action accused of misappropriating federal job-training funds. The court found in favor of our client. District Court, County of Adams, Colorado.

Multiple Claims - Conveyance of Interest in Real Property (for the Defense).

Elizabeth Starrs represented individual lawyers and their law firm accused of rendering negligent advice, breaching their fiduciary duties, and aiding and abetting the breach of fiduciary duties by another after they prepared a quit-claim deed conveying all of the plaintiff's interest in investment property to her ex-husband. The case involved significant questions of international law and discovery of foreign documents. The court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant attorneys. United States District Court, District of Colorado.

Contact us now for a confidential consultation about your legal malpractice claim and how we can help you.