On September 22, 2022, the Illinois Supreme Court recently tackled the following question: Does Illinois’ public policy on punitive damages and/or the statutory...
After the Illinois Supreme Court concluded that lawyers can be sued by clients seeking to recover punitive damages, two St. Louis attorneys and their law firm have reached a settlement with Midwest Sanitary Services in a legal malpractice suit involving a former employee’s alleged wrongful termination.
A St. Louis law firm and two attorneys are petitioning the Illinois Supreme Court to review the Fifth District Appellate Court’s ruling that punitive damages are recoverable in legal malpractice cases.
SPRINGFIELD – Supreme Court Justices decided to review a ruling that Midwest Sanitary Services of Wood River can seek reimbursement of a verdict for punitive damages through a legal malpractice suit.
Moore
The Fifth District Appellate Court held that punitive damages are recoverable in legal malpractice cases, concluding that in such circumstances the punitive damages are “compensatory in nature.”
“In short, we agree that punitive damages that are assessed against a litigant as a proximate result of the professional negligence of its attorney are not, in the context of a subsequent legal malpractice action against the attorney, punitive in nature but are, indeed, compensatory in nature and therefore not barred …” wrote Justice James Randy Moore in the ruling.
Moore delivered the April 28 opinion with justices Mark Boie and John Barberis concurring.
Moore
The Fifth District Appellate Court held that punitive damages are recoverable in legal malpractice cases, concluding that in such circumstances the punitive damages are “compensatory in nature.”
“In short, we agree that punitive damages that are assessed against a litigant as a proximate result of the professional negligence of its attorney are not, in the context of a subsequent legal malpractice action against the attorney, punitive in nature but are, indeed, compensatory in nature and therefore not barred …” wrote Justice James Randy Moore in the ruling.
Moore delivered the April 28 opinion with justices Mark Boie and John Barberis concurring.