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Professional Responsibility Keyed to Gillers
Nichols v. Keller
Citation:
15 Cal. App. 4th 1672, 19 Cal. Rptr. 2d 601 (1993)Facts
Gary Nichols suffered injuries at a construction site in 1985 while working for Stouffer Food Corporation. He retained attorneys Robert Keller and others to represent him in workers’ compensation proceedings. The attorneys successfully obtained workers’ compensation benefits for Nichols but allegedly never advised him about potential third-party claims against entities other than his employer who might have been responsible for his injuries. By the time Nichols learned about the possibility of such claims from another attorney in 1988, the one-year statute of limitations had expired. Nichols then filed a legal malpractice action against his former attorneys, claiming they breached their professional duty by failing to advise him about these potential claims.
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