Legal Malpractice and Fraud Action Brought By a Nursing Home Dismissed, With Prejudice.

We obtained the dismissal of a legal malpractice/fraud action brought by a nursing home against an attorney who represented a patient and who assisted the patient in the admission process. The owners of the nursing home claimed the attorney misrepresented his client’s assets in the application and that the nursing/assisted living facility relied on that representation in admitting the patient. However, the patient had previously filed an action against the nursing home for consumer fraud, and that case was still pending when the nursing home filed the legal malpractice/fraud action against the patient’s attorney. The defense argued that the legal malpractice/fraud action was barred under New Jersey’s Entire Controversy Doctrine. The court agreed and dismissed the legal malpractice action, with prejudice.