Lawyer Doesn’t Owe Non-Client Duty of Care, NJ High Court Says

A New Jersey lawyer doesn’t need to provide a duty of care to a non-client in a legal malpractice case involving defective wills, the NJ Supreme Court ruled.

The court adopted the standard set in the Restatement (Third) of the Law Governing Lawyers—the mix of state laws and ethics codes that stems in large part from the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct—as it affirmed a ruling from a panel with the NJ courts’ appellate division.

The non-client in the case, Helen Christakos, didn’t rely on attorney Anthony Boyadjis’s legal opinion, an “essential element” under the ethics rules ...