{"id":610,"date":"2011-07-19T14:08:07","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T14:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/discharged-attorney-cannot-sue-successor-attorney-for-tortious-interference-with-contract-when-client-switches-firms\/"},"modified":"2011-07-19T14:08:07","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T14:08:07","slug":"discharged-attorney-cannot-sue-successor-attorney-for-tortious-interference-with-contract-when-client-switches-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/discharged-attorney-cannot-sue-successor-attorney-for-tortious-interference-with-contract-when-client-switches-firms\/","title":{"rendered":"Discharged Attorney Cannot Sue Successor Attorney For Tortious Interference With Contract When Client Switches Firms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A New Jersey appellate court recently held that an attorney could not maintain a claim of tortious interference with contractual relations against another law firm after his client discharged him and entered into a contingent fee agreement with a new law firm.\u00a0 <em>Nostrame v. Santiago<\/em>, 2011 WL 2297726 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. June 10, 2011).<\/p>\n<p>The plaintiff, Frank Nostrame, represented Natividad Santiago for approximately six months in preparing and filing a medical malpractice lawsuit.\u00a0 However, shortly after Mr. Nostrame filed the complaint, Ms. Santiago discharged Mr. Nostrame and entered into a contingency fee agreement with the defendant law firm, Mazie, Slater, Katz and Freeman, LLC (\u201cMazie Slater\u201d).\u00a0 Mazie Slater subsequently negotiated a settlement payment of $1,200,000 for Ms. Santiago.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Nostrame filed suit alleging tortious interference with contractual relations against Mazie Slater, claiming that Ms. Santiago \u201cwas induced to discharge [him] and dissolve the contingent fee contract between them by [Mazie Slater].\u201d \u00a0In examining this claim, the Court first recognized that \u201ca contract between an attorney and client is a contract that is \u2018terminable at will\u2019\u201d.\u00a0 <em>Nostrame, <\/em>2011 WL 2297726,<em><\/em>*3.\u00a0\u00a0 Because a party to a terminable at will contract has no legal assurance of future relations with the other party, the Court found that \u201cthis interest is closely analogous to interference with prospective contractual relations.\u201d\u00a0 <em>Id<\/em>.\u00a0 Further, \u201c[i[f the defendant was a competitor regarding the business involved in the contract, his interference with the contract may be not improper.\u201d\u00a0 <em>Id.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Applying this general analysis to the facts of this case, the Court determined that the contract that Mazie Slater allegedly interfered with \u201cconcern[ed] a matter involved in the competition between [Mazie Slater] and [plaintiff]\u201d, in that both Mr. Nostrame and Mazie Slater represent clients in medical malpractice actions.\u00a0 <em>Id<\/em>. at *4.\u00a0 Furthermore, the Court Mr. Nostrame did not allege that Mazie Slater employed any wrongful means, such as fraud or defamation, to induce Ms. Santiago to discharge him, and Ms. Santiago\u2019s discharge of Mr. Nostrame would not create \u201cunlawful restraint of trade.\u201d\u00a0 <em>Id.\u00a0 <\/em>Mazie Slater was simply competing in its own self interest for Ms. Santiago\u2019s case.\u00a0 <em>Id.\u00a0 <\/em>As a result, the Court determined that Mr. Nostrame did not state a claim for tortious interference with contractual relations.<\/p>\n<p>The Court found its holding to be reinforced by a \u201cclient\u2019s freedom of choice\u201d in an attorney-client relationship, which is a \u201cparamount interest.\u201d <em>Id. <\/em>at *5<em>.\u00a0 <\/em>In citing to the New Jersey Supreme Court, it held that the courts should not recognize a cause of action for tortious interference with a contract between an attorney and client that could impede that freedom of choice unless the alleged interference involves wrongful means, such as fraud or defamation.<em>\u00a0 Id. <\/em>at *5<em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A New Jersey appellate court recently held that an attorney could not maintain a claim of tortious interference with contractual relations against another law firm after his client discharged him and entered into a contingent fee agreement with a new law firm.\u00a0 Nostrame v. Santiago, 2011 WL 2297726 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. June 10, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[25],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Discharged Attorney Cannot Sue Successor Attorney For Tortious Interference With Contract When Client Switches Firms<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A NJ appellate court recently held that an attorney could not maintain a claim of tortious interference with contract when client switches firms.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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