Mashaney v. Board of Indigents' Defense Services

I. An Overview

The difficult issue in this case asks how the demonstrable negligence of a lawyer representing a criminal defendant should be remedied through civil tort law. Based on vaporous public policy considerations, most courts addressing the issue require criminal defendants to prove they are “actually innocent” to win legal malpractice claims—an obligation that has no real analog when civil litigants sue their lawyers for negligent representation and no real connection to the harm inflicted. The duty criminal defense lawyers owe their clients has both a constitutional dimension rooted…