Lawyers hit with malpractice claim over alleged failure to appear, refile client's suit

A Will County woman is suing two lawyers, claiming one of them got her lawsuit thrown out by failing to appear in court.

Carrie E. McCurdy, formerly known as Carrie E. Fack, filed a legal malpractice lawsuit Sept. 10 in Cook County Circuit Court against Chicago attorney Richard D. Grossman and Morton Grove attorney Robert Louis Perlstein.

According to the complaint, McCurdy incurred more than $42,000 in medical expenses after a car collision with James Nickels, who was operating a vehicle owned by the Mount Prospect Park District on Dec. 2, 2009.

She retained Grossman to represent her in a case to recover damages. A case against Nickels was filed on Oct. 28, 2011, but it was dismissed for want of prosecution March 8, 2012 because McCurdy claims Grossman failed to appear in court.

The suit states Grossman informed her five months later that Perlstein would be taking over the case, but then told her in late December 2012 the case had been dismissed and could not be refiled because the statute of limitations had run out on Dec. 2 of that year.

She accuses the defendants of legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty.

McCurdy is seeking more than $250,000 in damages, plus attorney fees, and is represented by Schaumburg attorney Richard Miller of Miller Law Firm.

Cook County Circuit Court case number: 2014L009453.

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