Can I sue a lawyer who helped his client engage in real estate fraud?
Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at
12:16 pm
If a lawyer drafted contracts knowing that they contained false statements, can he be sued for the amount of money that he helped to scam?
Tagged with: contracts • false statements • lawyer
Filed under: Legal Protection
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Sure can. But because I'm not a lawyer I couldn't tell you how to go about it, so contact a law that will take you case, and have a lot of evidence!
You cannot sue unless you were harmed. If you have evidence, you could report him to the bar or district attorney.
First of all, to sue someone, you need to be an interested party. Which means you need to have been on the losing end.
If you just want to make the lawyer's life difficult, you can file a complaint with the bar. You can also file a complaint with the police.
But beware… If you can't PROVE what you are saying, then you risk being sued by the lawyer for defamation of character….and the lawyer won't have to pay lawyer fees… but you may end up ruined.
Now that all depends on whether or not you have proof of some kind that he knowingly drafted contracts that he knew were false. After all, it is the owner of the property that is attesting to it. It all depends on the case and what evidence you have to submit and validate your claim.
You have two courses of action. The first is to complain to the State Bar Association about the attorney's unethical conduct. Detail what happened and the Bar Assoc. will investigate and discipline the attorney including having him disbarred. The second action would be to file a claim in Civil Court for the damages incurred as a result of the attorney's fraud. You must be able to itemize the damages and have the evidence to support how you know that the attorney knew that what he/she was doing was wrong, false, fraudulent. You should probably get another attorney, preferrably not from the same county, to carry your case for you.
Best wishes.