How to sue your lawyer in Arizona.

Arizona courts apply the two year statute of limitations in Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 12-542 to legal malpractice. The Arizona Supreme Court confirmed that in Glaze v. Larsen, 207 Ariz. 26 (2004). An Arizona legal malpractice suit must be filed within 2 years after the cause of action accrues.

When a claim accrues is where Arizona gets more forgiving:

• Discovery rule. The general rule, as the Supreme Court restated it in Glaze, is that a cause of action accrues when all of its elements are present and the plaintiff knows or should have known of them.
• Litigation mistakes wait for the case to end. In Amfac Distribution Corp. v. Miller, 138 Ariz. 152 (1983), the Supreme Court held that a malpractice claim arising from a civil lawsuit does not accrue until the underlying proceedings, including all appeals, are over. In Arizona, if your lawyer's error happened in a lawsuit, the 2 year clock usually starts only after the case and any appeal are finished or the appeal is given up.
• Continuous representation. We did not find an Arizona appellate decision adopting a separate continuous representation rule. Treat it as unsettled.
• No statute of repose. We found no outer time cap specific to legal malpractice in Arizona.

Mistakes outside of litigation, like a bad contract or a botched will, follow the ordinary discovery rule. Do not assume you have more time than two years from the moment you learn something went wrong. Compare states in our deadline table.

Arizona deadline rules at a glance

An Arizona plaintiff generally must prove the lawyer owed a duty, breached the standard of care, caused the loss, and that the client suffered actual damages. For a mistake in a lawsuit, that usually means proving the case within a case: you would have won, or won more, if the lawyer had done the job right.

Arizona has a statutory certificate of merit process for claims against licensed professionals. Under Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 12-2602, the claimant or the claimant's attorney must file and serve, with the claim, a written statement certifying whether expert testimony is needed to prove the standard of care. If you certify in Arizona that an expert is needed, you must serve a preliminary expert opinion affidavit with your initial disclosures, and the court must dismiss the claim without prejudice if you do not. The affidavit has to state the expert's qualifications, the facts, the specific errors, and how they caused your damages. The lawyer can also ask the court to require an affidavit if you certify that none is needed.

In practice, almost every Arizona legal malpractice claim needs an expert witness. See our expert witness guide and case within a case explained.

Damages usually mean the money you lost because of the mistake: the recovery you would have won in the original case, extra fees you paid another lawyer to fix the problem, or the value of a deal or right the lawyer let slip away. A clear error that caused no measurable loss usually does not support a malpractice claim.

In Glaze v. Larsen (2004), the Arizona Supreme Court held that favorable termination of the criminal proceedings is an element of a malpractice claim against a criminal defense lawyer. In Arizona, a claim that a lawyer's malpractice caused a criminal conviction does not accrue until the conviction is set aside and the criminal proceedings are completely terminated, including appeals, Rule 32 petitions, and any retrial.

The court said the conviction can be vacated by any lawful means. It expressly declined to decide whether the former defendant must also prove actual innocence in the later malpractice case, so that question remains open. See criminal defense malpractice.

The State Bar of Arizona runs a free, voluntary Fee Arbitration Program. Arizona's bar fee arbitration is available when at least $1,000 is in dispute, and the award is binding if both client and lawyer agree to arbitrate. You do not need a lawyer to take part, but the program is not available if a lawsuit over the fee is already pending. Our fee dispute guide explains how to build your case.

For stolen money, Arizona's client protection fund is the Client Protection Fund, a trust created by the Arizona Supreme Court in 1961 and funded by yearly assessments on lawyers. It can reimburse theft, embezzlement, conversion, intentional dishonesty, and unearned advance fees when no work was done. The trustees can pay up to $100,000 on one claim and $250,000 total against one lawyer. The fund does not pay for negligence, incompetence, or malpractice, and generally requires that the lawyer already face serious discipline such as suspension of more than six months or disbarment. See stolen client funds.

In Arizona, a bar grievance is called a bar charge. The State Bar of Arizona's Lawyer Regulation office reviews charges under the authority of the Arizona Supreme Court and decides whether to investigate and pursue discipline. You can check a lawyer's public discipline history and submit a charge form through the bar's "Concerns About Your Legal Professional" pages.

The discipline process and the Client Protection Fund are separate. A bar charge in Arizona can end in discipline or a restitution order, but it is not a substitute for a malpractice lawsuit, which is the only way to recover full damages. Read malpractice vs. a bar complaint and how to file a bar complaint.

1. Write down when you first knew something was wrong, and whether the underlying case or appeal is still running.
2. Get your client file in writing. See how to get your case file.
3. Expect to need an expert, and budget time to find one before you file.
4. If the issue is only the bill, look at fee arbitration first.

What to gather before you talk to a lawyer

• The engagement letter or fee agreement.
• Every bill and proof of payment.
• Emails, texts, and letters with the lawyer, especially anything about deadlines or case status.
• Court papers from the original matter, including any dismissal order or judgment.
• A short timeline: when you hired the lawyer, when the mistake happened, when you found out, and when the lawyer stopped working for you.

A malpractice lawyer will usually check that timeline against the Arizona deadline first, because a late claim cannot be saved no matter how strong it is.

If you think your lawyer's mistake cost you, a free case review takes about two minutes and can connect you with an independent attorney who handles legal malpractice claims in Arizona.