Mark B. Abelson

Mark B. Abelson is an attorney at Campagnoli, Abelson & Campagnoli and has been in practice for 48 years. He has successfully tried, arbitrated and settled numerous legal malpractice cases.

He said he was drawn to continue to do professional responsibility work because clients who have received negligent services that have caused them to be damaged are, in essence, two-time losers in their experience with our legal system.

“The first loss is the error or omission that caused their damage,” Abelson said. “The second loss is not being able to recover that damage. ”

He added: “I believe that I perform a service to society by helping to police our profession. I hope that attorneys realize that if they make an error that they will be held responsible. We all err, but when we err, we should be held responsible. It is important for people or business entities or trusts or estates to have some redress if their attorneys make an error that causes damages. ”

Abelson recently represented a young woman whose mother died of cancer. He said the mother and her stepfather had purchased a home together while they were married and titled the property in joint tenancy. The mother filed for divorce and had her will and trust drafted by an attorney. The main asset of the mother’s estate was her interest in the residence that she still owned with her husband, who she was divorcing. The home was titled in joint tenancy, and the mother had stage 4 cancer at the time she was represented by both the drafter of the testamentary documents and the divorce attorney. Both attorneys admitted to knowing these facts and speaking to each other.

Abelson said the divorce attorney said that it was the other attorney’s responsibility to sever the joint tenancy, but the mother did not agree to have the joint tenancy severed when the topic came up. The estate planning attorney stated that the mother did want the joint tenancy severed and it was the divorce attorney’s responsibility. Abelson had two very different policy limits on the insurance coverage. After a lot of discovery and hours in mediation, the claim was settled for an amount that was very close to the full value of what the mother’s 50% interest would have been in the house at her death if the joint tenancy had been severed.

Lastly, Abelson noted an ongoing trend that needs to be addressed: civility.

“I have noticed that a lot of younger attorneys fight each issue and fight aggressively. Many litigators believe that you must fight fire with fire,” Abelson said. “What ends up happening is a combustion of arguments, longer discovery battles, strident or threatening emails back and forth about what each attorney is going to do to the other. The clients expect and are entitled to competent and zealous representation of their interests. Clients are not interested in and do not want to pay for skirmishes between attorneys for leverage or reputation building that are not of consequence to the prosecution of nor the defense of the issues involved in the litigation.”