No legal malpractice in township downzoning appeal.

Successfully defended an appeal of a complex multimillion dollar legal malpractice action arising out of a plaintiff group's challenge of a New Jersey township's downzoning ordinance. The ordinance required minimum lot sizes and resulted in an underlying challenge to the ordinance. We represented the attorney involved in the original action, who was brought in as trial counsel to try the case. After the Chancery Division ruled in favor of the township, the plaintiffs appealed, and the appellate division affirmed. The plaintiffs then filed a legal malpractice action against the attorney, arguing that he failed to call appropriate hydrogeologists as experts at the trial. The defense successfully demonstrated that the opinion of the plaintiffs' expert attorney was speculative and would not likely have impacted the previous outcomes of the case. Further, it was demonstrated that the Steering Committee for the plaintiffs' group did not have the funds to call another hydrogeologist to testify at trial, and it was not the obligation of the attorney to fund the expert costs. The case is significant because the appellate division held that an attorney can represent a plaintiffs group that is guided by a Steering Committee, and once the attorney reports to that committee, it is sufficient that the  committee keeps other members of the group advised.