Matt Wahrer recently prevailed before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, in Haskell v. Kline. The Law Court affirmed the Business and Consumer Docket’s entry of summary judgment in favor of Attorney Robert Kline and Kline Law Offices on claims arising from alleged legal malpractice.

The appeal principally addressed whether the plaintiff had presented sufficient evidence of egregious attorney conduct or severe emotional distress to permit his claims to proceed. The Law Court reaffirmed that emotional distress damages in legal malpractice cases involving economic loss are available only in limited circumstances involving sufficiently egregious conduct. It concluded that there was no genuine issue of material fact that Kline’s conduct met that standard.

The Law Court also affirmed the dismissal of the plaintiff’s intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress claims, concluding that the evidence could not establish severe emotional distress as a matter of law and that the alleged conduct was not sufficiently outrageous to permit severe distress to be inferred. The Court therefore affirmed the judgment in its entirety.

The decision upheld an earlier decision from the Business and Consumer Court, granting summary judgment to the defendants on all claims

Matt Wahrer represented Robert Kline and Kline Law Offices on appeal and presented oral argument before the Law Court.

For more information, please contact Matthew Wahrer.