A client called an attorney’s office seeking legal advice for injuries she received in a fall in a department store. The secretary told the client to write a letter to the store informing them of her fall and injuries, and she arranged for the client to receive a medi-cal examination with the store’s doctor. She also told the client to write a letter to the attorney requesting legal services. The client wrote the letters and personally delivered the attorney’s letter to the attorney’s office, but it was misfiled and the attorney did not see it.The client called the attorney a number of times, but the attorney did not return her calls. After three years, the statute of limitations expired, and the client sued the attorney for malpractice. In his answer, the attorney stated that he was never retained to represent the client and that no attorney-client relationship was established. The client stated that the secretary was the attorney’s agent and therefore had apparent authority to establish the attorney-client relationship and that the client reasonably relied on the statements by the attorney’s secretary. Her reliance established the at-torney-client relationship. Apparent authority was defined as “authority that results from conduct by the principal which causes a third person reasonably to believe that a particular person has authority to enter into negotiations or make representations as his agent.” The attorney asserted that the secretary had no authority to establish the attorney-client relationship. Where there is no attorney-client relationship, there can be no breach of duty and therefore no liability. The client claimed that the attorney placed the secretary in a position in which prospective clients might reasonably believe that she had the authority to establish the attorney-client relationship.

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A attorneyclient relationship begins when two conditions are met presence of a client seeking legal ... View the full answer