Pepper Hamilton was hit with a $30 million legal malpractice suit brought by former clients who claim that a series of mistakes by two Philadelphia lawyers resulted in a New York jury's decision to hand up a verdict of more than $28.8 million.
According to the suit, the Pepper Hamilton lawyers failed to object when the trial judge decided that eight jurors would deliberate and then took a verdict in which only six of the eight agreed.
The suit says New York law requires civil verdicts to be rendered by at least five of six jurors -- equal to about 83 percent of the panel.
But the Pepper Hamilton lawyers failed to object at the time of the verdict that a decision by six of the eight jurors violated the so-called "five-sixths rule" because it reflected a decision by just 75 percent of the panel, the suit alleges.
According to the suit, the Pepper Hamilton lawyers raised the issue for the first time when the case was on appeal and were told by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York that they had waived any right to object because they failed to complain about it at the time the verdict was rendered.
Doh! Details here from The Legal Intelligencer via Law.com.