In doing some research for my upcoming presentation at the WI Solo and Small Firm Conference, I came across and interesting set of statistics. According to the Wisconsin Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company, fourteen percent of their legal malpractice claims arose from failure to know or properly apply law.
Statistics like these underscore the importance of legal research skills to the practice of law and illustrate just how valuable law librarians, as experts in legal research, truly are.
Here’s the full breakdown of WILMIC claims:
- Calendaring – 23%
- Failure to know or properly apply law – 14%
- Planning error in choice of procedures – 13%
- Inadequate discovery & investigation – 12%
- Failure to obtain consent/inform client – 6%