Appellate Court Affirms Dismissal of Legal Malpractice Case for Failure to State Claim

Mike Sanders, Tom Underwood, and R.J. VanSwol obtained an appellate decision affirming the dismissal of a legal malpractice action arising from a divorce case. The plaintiff alleged that the attorney should have argued for a different allocation of marital property that would have been more favorable to him. The trial court granted P&W's motion to dismiss because the judge in the divorce case expressly rejected the plaintiff's proposed reallocation argument, and because the scope of the attorney's retention was limited to a specific motion that was unrelated to the allocation of marital property. The Appellate Court affirmed, Becker v. Panos, 2015 IL App (1st) 142308-U, holding that the plaintiff had not sustained any injury as a result of the attorney's representation and could not state a claim.