Professional Negligence Law Reporter

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that the limitations period for a former prisoner’s legal malpractice claim began when he pleaded guilty and the defendant attorney’s representation ended.

Casey Luczak was charged with wire fraud in violation of federal law and retained attorney David Farnham to represent him in the criminal action. In 2010, Luczak pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 121 months in prison. While incarcerated, Luczak filed two suits against Farnham; however, these were dismissed in 2013 and 2014. In 2019, after Luczak was released from prison, he sued Farnham for legal malpractice. The trial court dismissed the lawsuit, finding that the four-year limitations statute began to run in 2010 when Luczak had pleaded guilty and started serving his prison sentence.

Affirming, the Eleventh Circuit agreed with the district court that the limitations period on the plaintiff’s lawsuit had expired years before he filed his 2019 lawsuit. Citing case law, the court said that an action for litigation-related malpractice accrues on the date of the allegedly negligent act. Here, the court found, the defendant’s representation ended when the plaintiff pleaded guilty in 2010, adding that nothing in the record indicates that the defendant had committed any wrongdoing after that year. Thus, the court held, the plaintiff’s malpractice claim could not have accrued any later than 2010.

The court rejected the plaintiff’s argument that his two previous lawsuits against the defendant tolled the limitations statute. Even assuming the previous suits tolled the present action, the court said, such tolling lasts only as long as the lawsuits remained pending, which in this case was no later than 2014.

Consequently, the court concluded that the plaintiff’s suit was time-barred.

Citation: Luczak v. Farnham, 2020 WL 71698 (11th Cir. Jan. 8, 2021).