Kraklio v. Simmons
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The relief-required rule, which ordinarily requires proof that a criminal client had been exonerated from the underlying conviction, does not apply to a convicted criminal suing one of his defense attorneys for legal malpractice over an alleged missed opportunity to shorten his period of supervised probation.
In this case, Plaintiff’s defense attorney successfully vacated two of Plaintiff’s convictions. Meanwhile, Plaintiff was incarcerated for a probation violation. The district court later determined, sua sponte, that Plaintiff’s term of supervised probation should have ended earlier, which would have avoided almost one year in prison. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendant attorney based on the relief-required rule. The court of appeals reversed, ruling that Plaintiff could sue over the sentencing error without proving his exoneration from the conviction as long as he obtained relief from the sentencing error. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that Plaintiff here must prove relief from the sentencing error allegedly caused by the malpractice, not the underlying conviction.
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