Supreme Court of California

Plaintiffs in a legal malpractice action may not recover as compensatory damages the punitive damages they allegedly lost due to the negligence of their attorneys in the underlying litigation.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/09/2003
• Published 06/09/2003

Judges

• BROWN, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
•  Adams  Nye  Sinunu  Walker, David J. Becht, Bruce Nye, San Francisco and Ross L. Libenson, Denver, CO, for Plaintiffs and Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, Jerome B. Falk, Jr., Ethan P. Schulman and Deborah A. Kane, San Francisco, for Defendants and Respondents., Bird, Marella, Boxer & Wolpert and Thomas R. Freeman, Los Angeles, for Los Angeles County Bar Association, Orange County Bar Association and Beverly Hills Bar Association as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents., Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland and Robert A. Olson, Los Angeles, for Association of Southern California Defense Counsel as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents., Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, Richard B. Wolf, Los Angeles and Raul L. Martinez, for Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company, Continental Casualty Company, Carolina Casualty Insurance Company and Admiral Insurance Company as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents.