Deckard Law Firm Practice Areas

Legal Malpractice
When a lawyer is negligent in handling your matter, and that negligence causes you to suffer loss as a result, he or she is liable for malpractice. Although not every mistake made by a lawyer is malpractice, we are prepared to evaluate a lawyer’s performance and advise you of the appropriate steps to take to seek a remedy. We also handle attorney fee disputes, and we counsel clients regarding conflicts of interest and breach of fiduciary duty in connection with legal representation. Our firm’s extensive experience defending attorneys allows us to view each case from both the client’s and the attorney’s perspective, providing a uniquely thorough analytical view of each matter.

Estate and Trust Litigation
We have experience in all aspects of estate and trust litigation, including disputes about the distribution of estate and trust assets, validity of gifts, breach of trustee fiduciary duties, accounting, and actions for constructive trust. We recognize that this type of litigation has lasting consequences for the participants that go above and beyond the legal issues raised, and we are sensitive to the emotional components of these cases. We make a special effort to deal with all aspects of these disputes, and counsel our clients to resolve them in a way that is both fair and economical.

Civil Litigation
Skilled as trial lawyers and also in negotiating settlements, our attorneys provide representation in a wide array of civil litigation areas. We resolve disputes among partners, litigate fraud and misrepresentation cases, handle financial elder abuse cases, and represent both plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of lawsuits involving breach of contract.

Commercial Litigation
Businesses of all sizes face unique challenges, often involving legal complexity. Our attorneys’ experience allows us to provide our clients with tailored representation to suit their commercial needs. We effectively protect both plaintiffs and defendants in a broad range of commercial matters involving business and contract disputes, trade secret litigation, torts, officers and directors’ liability, as well as claims of fraud and/or misrepresentation.

Typical Cases
The following examples reflect the types of cases we have handled for our clients:

Legal Malpractice
Represented an international corporation in legal malpractice and fee dispute against AmLaw 100 law firm in which we recovered $1,000,000 + in a mediated settlement prior to filing suit.

Obtained summary judgment for plaintiff in a legal malpractice suit against her lawyer who failed to protect his client’s interests in bankruptcy court and did not disclose that he also represented the bankruptcy trustee..

Recovered $400,000 for a police officer in litigation against the law firm whose negligent representation of him in an internal affairs investigation led to his being fired.

Recovered $100,000 in settlement for clients who were negligently represented in “lemon law” case by a national law firm.

Probate/Trust Litigation:
Defense verdict for trustee after 8-day trial in breach of fiduciary duty case based on allegations related to father’s irrevocable trust.

Defended trustees and general partners of limited partnership against allegations of breach of fiduciary duty in connection with purchase of commercial property; resulted in favorable settlement.

Civil Litigation:
Defense verdict for Wisconsin bank against claim of negligence in connection with wire transfer after 7-day jury trial; successfully defended verdict on appeal.

Successfully defended partnership of physicians in binding arbitration of terms of Buy-Sell Agreement when one partner left the group.

In two separate real estate arbitrations, recovered deposits from sellers of real property with accompanying awards of attorneys’ fees.