Client’s Ignorance Tolls Legal Malpractice Deadline

A six-year statute of limitations isn’t stopping a disgruntled divorce client from suing her lawyer for malpractice almost 10 years after the initial alimony settlement.

A New Jersey appeals court has ruled that the limitations period didn’t begin to run until the client learned from another lawyer that she might have a claim, the New Jersey Law Journal reports.

"An economically dependent spouse relies on his or her matrimonial attorney to lead the way through the litigation labyrinth to the path of future economic security," the court said Tuesday in the unpublished opinion (PDF). "Nothing in this record suggests that plaintiff knew or should have known that defendant had taken her off-course."