Ark. Code Ann. » Title 16 Chapter 22
Arkansas Code Annotated

Ark. Code Ann. § 16-22-306 (2020)

Negligence of attorney resulting in dismissal — Liability for costs and damages

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If any suit in any court of record in this state is dismissed on account of the negligence of any attorney at law, or for his nonattendance at the court without having a just and reasonable excuse for such absence, it shall be at the costs of the attorney at law. Such attorney at law shall be liable for all damages his client may have sustained by the dismissal or by any other neglect by the attorney at law of his duty, in an action in any court within this state having jurisdiction thereof.

History. Rev. Stat., ch. 15, § 10; C. & M. Dig., § 608; Pope's Dig., § 648; A.S.A. 1947, § 25-304.

Case Notes

Good Faith.

In dealing with their clients, attorneys are required to exercise the utmost good faith. Weil v. Fineran, 78 Ark. 87, 93 S.W. 568 (1906).

Negligence.

An attorney is not liable in the discharge of his official duty for claims put into his hands to collect as an attorney, unless it is shown that he has been guilty of culpable negligence in the prosecution of his suit, and thereby the plaintiff has lost his debt. Cummins v. McLain, 2 Ark. 402 (1840); Sevier v. Holliday, 2 Ark. 512 (1840); Palmer & Southmayd v. Ashley & Ringo, 3 Ark. 75 (1840).

Statute of Limitations.

Clients' legal malpractice suit under this section for failure of a law firm to properly file a medical malpractice suit, was barred by the three-year statute of limitations under § 16-56-105(3), because, under the occurrence rule, the clients' legal malpractice action ran no later than three years after the last day that their medical malpractice action could have been properly instituted. Rice v. Ragsdale, 104 Ark. App. 364, 292 S.W.3d 856 (2009).

Cited: Barr v. Cockrill, 224 Ark. 570, 275 S.W.2d 6 (1955).

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases (2 in the last 5 years), 2009–2022 · leading case: Rice v. Ragsdale, 292 S.W.3d 856 (Ark. Ct. App. 2009).
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Rice v. Ragsdale, 292 S.W.3d 856 (Ark. Ct. App. 2009). · cites it 14× “Appellants sued appellees for legal malpractice in this action on May 3, 2006, asserting claims for negligence and under Ark. Code Ann. § 16-22-306 (Repl.1999), which states that, if a lawsuit is dismissed on account of the negligence of an attorney, the attorney shall be liable…”
Rebecca Nichols v. James Swindoll, 2022 Ark. App. 400. · cites it 5× “Ragsdale, the Attorney-Client Relationship, and the Fiduciary’s Duty to Speak of Legal Malpractice Here is the essential procedural background in Rice, where former clients sued attorneys for messing up their medical-malpractice case: [Clients] sued [lawyers] for legal…”
Rebecca Nichols v. James Swindoll, 2022 Ark. App. 400. “§ 16-22-306 is governed by the three-year, rather than the five-year, statute of limitations and that the statute of limitations as to Defendants’ statutory liability under Ark.”
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