Legal Malpractice and the Negligent Real Estate Lawyer – Full Value Settlement

This is a case in which we represented an elderly gentleman who was mistreated by his attorney. His attorney was negligent, and it cost our client a lot of money. This client owned a house. He bought a house with his wife, and when he bought the house there was an inspection and the inspector said there may be oil tanks. The inspector wrote a report saying he suspected buried oil tanks. He went to his lawyer at the time and the lawyer said, “Don’t worry about it, this is a remote part of Massachusetts, nobody cares. If there may be oil tanks, don’t worry about it.” This was all in writing.

He bought the house with his wife, he lived there for many years. His wife passed on, unfortunately, and he went to sell the house. When he went to sell the house the new inspector said, “Hey, there’s oil tanks here. You got to remove those, it’s a violation of the law.” His new lawyer looked at the transaction that had occurred many years earlier and said, your former lawyer was negligent. He should never have told you to not look into these oil tanks; he should have advised you to demand that the seller remove them, or else you will have to.

Local Lawyers Could Not Take The Legal Malpractice Case

To sell his house, he had to spend a lot of money to dig up two 1,500 gallon oil tanks and properly dispose of them. He of course undertook this task because he wanted to properly sell his house. The lawyers in that part of Massachusetts said, “We’re not going to touch this as a case against your former lawyer – this guy’s a real estate lawyer that we all know, we’re not going to bother with this. No way.”

Victim of Legal Malpractice Comes To Boston For Representation

The legal malpractice case came to Burns & Jain, in downtown Boston. We reviewed the documents, the bills for removing the oil tanks, and we agreed to take this case. We found that clear negligence on the part of the real estate lawyer. He put it in writing you that our client did not need to find and remove the oil tanks even though the inspector, the expert, said it’s a violation of the law to have oil tanks when you’re transacting the sale of land in Massachusetts.

Environmental laws are pretty crystal clear in Massachusetts and real estate attorneys know or should know that.

We contacted the attorney. He contacted his insurance company and they said: tell us what it’s going to cost to remove the oil tanks, and what it’s going to cost for your fee. We provided them with the numbers, and we resolved the case. We never even wrote a demand.

Fortunately, we were able to settle this case for the full value of the loss, that is the removal of the oil tanks. We got a fee, and our client was able to move on without having to lose all of that money in the sale of his house.

Burns & Jain Represents Victims of Real Estate Lawyer Malpractice

If you’ve been a victim of legal malpractice, or if your real estate lawyer has done something improper, inappropriate that causes you damages, such as in this case where there was a lot of damages, give Burns & Jain a call.

They are experienced, they are aggressive, and they are effective. They care about their clients. So if you’ve been a victim or if you think you’ve been a victim of a real estate malpractice or of some other type of legal malpractice, give us a call, we want to help you. Call Burns & Jain, (617) 227-7423.