Attorney Bruce Campbell Obtains Decisive Decision in Legal Malpractice Case
Dallas, TX (PRWEB) August 11, 2016 -- Attorney Bruce Campbell, founder of Campbell & Associates Law Firm PC, recently obtained a summary judgment that was affirmed on appeal (Court of Appeals, Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana, Case No. 06-15-00017-CV), and on which the Texas Supreme Court denied petition for review. The case included legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty claims that arose out of a serious automobile accident.
According to court documents, the case stems from an incident involving brothers who were driving in a Lexus and got in an accident that killed the driver and severely injured the two passengers. Court documents state that initially, members of the family pursued a product liability action against Toyota, maker of Lexus, on an alleged claim that the Lexus had suddenly accelerated prior to the accident. The family hired Melissa Richards-Smith and the Law Firm of Gillam & Smith, LLP (collectively the Smith Defendants), who associated with E. Todd Tracy and the Tracy Firm (collectively the Tracy Defendants), to pursue litigation against Toyota.
According to court documents, one of the passengers in the car and his wife made a claim under the deceased driver’s primary liability insurance and settled their claims against him for policy limits without the lawyers’ knowledge. In the course of doing so, court documents further state, these two parties released the deceased driver, his wife, and the primary insurance carrier from all causes of action, claims, or demands for damages arising out of the accident. They then attempted to collect under an umbrella policy that the deceased driver had purchased, but their claim was denied based on the settlement with the primary insurance carrier and the resulting written release of claims. Because of this, according to court documents, they sued the lawyer defendants for legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty.
Campbell, who focuses on legal malpractice, raised on behalf of the Tracy Defendants the defense of release of the primary carrier to demonstrate that the claimants could not establish that the claimants could recover under the umbrella policy, which thus defeated the causation element of both claims. The court of appeals agreed and affirmed the summary judgment granted by the trial court. Recently, the Texas Supreme Court denied the petition for review.
About Bruce Campbell, Campbell & Associates Law Firm PC
Bruce Campbell is admitted to practice in Texas State Courts, in all Federal Courts in the State of Texas, in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans and in the Supreme Court of the United States. Campbell & Associates practice areas include legal malpractice, attorney discipline, attorney ethics, director and officer liability, business litigation, employment litigation, construction defect litigation and representation of a variety of other professionals including real estate agents, insurance agents and IT professionals. For more information, call (972) 277-8585, or visit http://www.cllegal.com. The law office is located at 4201 Spring Valley Road, Dallas, TX 75244.
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