Disproving The "Case-Within-The-Case" In Malpractice Lawsuits

In a decision with significant potential ramifications for malpractice cases in New Jersey, Judge Joseph A. Dickson, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey, held this past week that a lawyer being sued for malpractice in connection with his representation in underlying wrongful death lawsuit may seek discovery of potentially mitigating evidence about the accident forming the basis of the underlying lawsuit – even if the discovery was not explored in the underlying case itself. In this specific case, the judge ruled that the attorney being sued for malpractice could conduct discovery focusing on whether the decedent in the wrongful death case had consumed alcoholic beverages the night he fell to his death down an under-construction elevator shaft at a resort in Mexico.