A Crittenden County nursing home operator recently received an $800,000 judgment against its former attorney in a legal malpractice case after the lawyer failed to respond in a timely manner to a lawsuit filed against the nursing home.
Willowbend at Marion LLC, which operates as Willowbend Healthcare & Rehabilitation in Marion, and other plaintiffs received the award against Rebecca Adelman and her namesake law firm in Memphis on Aug. 27 after a three-day jury trial in U.S. District Court in Helena.
Willowbend’s attorney, Danny Crabtree of Little Rock, also asked U.S. District Judge Brian S. Miller that $82,333 in prejudgment interest be awarded. As of last Monday, a ruling hadn’t been made on that request.
Last year, Willowbend and the other plaintiffs sued Adelman and her firm, accusing them of legal malpractice in her handling of a wrongful death case in Crittenden County Circuit Court.
That lawsuit was filed in 2022 by Stella Washington of West Memphis, as special administratrix of the estate of Helen Spears, who was her mother. Kyle Ludwig of Little Rock represented Washington in the case against Willowbend.
In the months before the filing of the lawsuit, Ludwig and Adelman had discussed the case, according to court records. And on Jan. 26, 2022, Ludwig emailed her a courtesy copy of the filed complaint. In the middle of March 2022, he began serving defendants with the lawsuit. About that time both attorneys stopped communicating with each other, according to an order by Crittenden County Circuit Court Judge Chris Thyer.
Adelman didn’t file a response to the lawsuit, according to court records. In July 2022, Ludwig filed a motion for a default judgment and received it.
After the default judgment was entered, Adelman then asked Thyer to toss it out. She said the defendants would have defended the allegations “except for the honest and unfortunate misunderstanding by” her that Ludwig would maintain communication regarding additional filings with the court.
She said that Ludwig never called or emailed her or anyone in her office to say that he was going to file a motion for a default judgment.
But Thyer refused to rescind the default judgment, finding that none of Adelman’s excuses for failing to file a timely answer were legally justified, according to his order filed Nov. 21, 2022.
The wrongful death case eventually settled for $900,000.
Adelman and her firm’s “failure to timely file a responsive pleading or obtain an extension of time was a breach of the standard of care required of lawyers practicing in Arkansas,” the nursing home’s lawsuit said. Willowbend also said that Adelman further breached the standard of care by failing to mention the consequences of the default judgment.
Adelman didn’t return messages for comment. But in a May deposition she said she believed she met the standard of care in the wrongful death case.
“I think the standard of care allows me to rely on the trustworthiness of an officer of the court,” she said. She also said that “the litigation process only works when attorneys can trust each other and they act in good faith.”
Ludwig told Arkansas Business in an email last week that “while Ms. Adelman frames her defense in terms of ‘trust,’ 12 jurors unanimously concluded she had not met her professional obligations. Her remarks cannot alter that reality — the verdict stands as a clear measure of accountability.”
Ludwig that he “absolutely” handled his side of the case appropriately.
“Lawyers are human and can make mistakes,” he said. “If that happens, show the world that you have the integrity and character to take responsibility. Maybe then one deserves more clients, not less.”
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