Professional Negligence Law Reporter

Thomas v. Hillyard, 2019 WL 2864416 (Utah July 2, 2019).

The Utah Supreme Court held that a former criminal client’s claim for legal malpractice accrues when the underlying action has concluded and there is no longer a right of appeal. Matthew Thomas retained attorney Lyle Hillyard to defend him against two charges of aggravated sexual abuse. In October 2012, a jury convicted Thomas on both counts. Several months later, he hired new attorneys, who successfully moved to arrest the judgment on ineffective assistance of counsel grounds. The following year, in October 2014, Thomas pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor charges.

In May 2017, Thomas filed suit against Hillyard for legal malpractice. The defendant moved for summary judgment on limitations grounds, arguing that the applicable four-year limitations period had accrued in October 2012.

The trial court granted the motion.

Reversing, the state high court found legal malpractice claims accrue when a plaintiff has suffered actual damages, reasoning that the law does not recognize an inchoate wrong. The court declined to impose an additional requirement for malpractice claims in the criminal context beyond those required in civil malpractice suits. Although evidence of actual innocence or success in a postconviction proceeding may help a malpractice plaintiff prove causation or harm, the court said, requiring such proof is unnecessary and would leave some criminal defendants without a remedy.

Consequently, the court concluded that the plaintiff’s malpractice action did not accrue until October 2014, when his underlying criminal action was concluded by his guilty plea to the misdemeanor charges. The plaintiff’s 2017 malpractice suit was therefore timely, the court held. 

Plaintiff counsel: Troy Booher, Beth Kennedy, and Jeffrey Oritt, all of Salt Lake City.