Legal Updates for Lawyers’ Professional Liability - CASE LAW UPDATE

Pennsylvania Superior Court Finds Pre-Judgment Interest Is Not Available in a Legal Malpractice Case
Premier Capital, LLC v. DeCecco, No. 843 MDA 2024, 2025 WL 2418395 (Pa. Super. Ct. August 21, 2025) (non-precedential) 

The Pennsylvania Superior affirmed the trial court’s denial of a plaintiff’s motion for pre-judgment interest following a jury verdict in a legal malpractice case. In October 2015, the plaintiff filed a legal malpractice action against its attorneys, asserting the attorneys failed to insure and timely transfer title to a valuable piece of property to the plaintiff and that the property was subsequently damaged by a fire. 

After a three-day trial, on May 4, 2023, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff and against the attorneys, finding the attorneys were negligent and that the negligence caused harm to the plaintiff, and awarded $750,000 in damages. After the verdict, the plaintiff filed a post-trial motion for pre-judgment interest, which the trial court denied.

On appeal, the Superior Court agreed with the trial court that neither 42 Pa. C.S. § 8101 nor Pa. R.C.P. 238 provides a basis for awarding pre-judgment interest in a legal malpractice action. The court reasoned that 42 Pa. C.S. § 8101 only provides for post-judgment interest, not pre-judgment interest on awards. Moreover, citing Rizzo v. Haines, 515 A.2d 321 (Pa. Super. 1986), the court found Rule 238 inapplicable in a legal malpractice action since it is not an action “for bodily injury, death or property damage” even if the underlying claim was for the type of injury enumerated in Rule 238. The court recognized that pre-judgment interest could potentially be awarded on equitable grounds if the attorneys were found to have wrongfully held money or property belonging to the plaintiff, but found no such basis in this case. 

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