Barnes & Thornburg sued for legal malpractice

Barnes & Thornburg and two of its attorneys are being sued for legal malpractice.

R & J Midwest Equipment Inc. filed a legal malpractice lawsuit Dec. 16 in the Cook County Circuit Court against Barnes & Thornburg LLC, Annamarie Daley and Douglas Robson.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff retained the defendants on Oct. 18, 2011 to represent them in a matter regarding a distribution agreement with Hyundai Construction Equipment.

The plaintiff claims Hyundai Construction made settlement offers that would have eliminated any exposure to an adverse judgment if it had accepted, but based on the recommendations of Daley, the settlement was rejected.

The issue then went to arbitration, after which a ruling was made against the plaintiff, the suit states.

The plaintiff contends the defendants failed to evaluate the statute of limitations on a Illinois Franchise Disclosure Act claim, failed to produce evidence of compliance with the claims requirements, failed to evaluate the issue of damages, failed to apprise it about various issues and counseled it to reject the settlement offer.

R & J Midwest Equipment is seeking damages in excess of the jurisdictional limit, plus costs, and is being represented in the case by Elliot R. Schiff of Schiff Gorman LLC.

Cook County Circuit Court Case No. 2013L014133.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed at the Cook County Courthouse. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note that a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt, and it represents only one side of the story.