Law Firm Found Negligent in Malpractice Suit

Recent divorcee, Rhonda Stansell, was awarded over $100,000 in damages from a civil malpractice suit. Litchfield & Carstens was named as the defendant in the malpractice suit. The suit is the result of advice given to Stansell by her attorney, Kurt Carstens regarding her divorce proceedings.

Carstens agreed to represent Stansell in her divorce proceedings with her husband, Dr. Bruce Richardson. Richardson is a Newport, Oregon dentist. Part of the marital settlement agreement was that Stansell would receive the remaining balance of contract payments that Richardson was due to receive from selling his dental practice.

The dentist that purchased the practice from Richardson stopped making monthly payments four years prior to the payment due in 2006. When the payments stopped, Stansell was left with no legal remedy to recover the balance due to her in the settlement agreement.

Under the marital agreement, Stansell's husband was not obligated to cover the losses from the default in payments. According to Stansell's complaint, she acted on advice from Carstens when she agreed to accept this marital agreement which only included the remaining balance due from the sale of the dental practice.

Stansell contended that she would have had much better results in her proceedings if she would have went to trial instead of accepting the marital settlement. Stansell contends that Carstens should have advised her to go to trial so that her contract payments could have been secured.

The jury in Stansell's suit found that Carstens was negligent because he was the cause of her damages due to his poor advice.