WEST PALM BEACH —An appeals court ruled that an arbitration clause in a contract was unenforceable and reversed an order dismissing a legal malpractice case.
"In short, the contract here at issue is different than the garden variety commercial contract," the majority opinion reads. "Lawyers owe ethical obligations and duties to their clients that exceed what the common law requires of arm’s length contracting parties."
The appeals court held that the arbitration clause violated a Florida State Bar rule and the case could not be dismissed because of it.
Judge Carole Y. Taylor authored the opinion, which was filed on June 27 in the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal. Judge Robert M. Gross agreed while Judge Jeffrey T. Kuntz dissented.
Lindsay Owens retained Katherine L. Corrigan and KLC Law for a dependency case and signed an agreement with her that contained an arbitration clause.
Owens claimed that Corrigan and the firm negligently represented her and caused her to lose custody of her children, so she filed a three-count legal malpractice case against them.
Corrigan and the firm filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, arguing that Owens had to go through arbitration.
Owens argued that the arbitration clause was "vague and ambiguous," and that it was unenforceable because "the retainer agreement did not comply with the Florida Bar Rule 4-1.5(i), which prohibits lawyers from making an agreement with a client for mandatory arbitration of fee disputes without advising the client in writing that the client should consider obtaining independent legal advice."
The trial court dismissed the case and sent it to arbitration. Owens sought a rehearing and when that was denied, she appealed.
In his dissent, Kuntz said that he disagrees with the majority because he believes the rule cited by the majority only relates to attorney's fees and that the dispute between Owens and Corrigan does not involve attorney's fees.
"We should apply the clause as written, affirm the court’s order in part, and remand with instructions to stay the case and appoint an arbitrator to arbitrate the dispute," Kuntz wrote.