On January 3, 2018, federal court Judge Robert W. Sweet from the Southern District in Manhattan, dismissed a legal malpractice claim filed by a disgruntled client who was convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy. The reason for the dismissal was a well settled principle under New York law that you can't state a 'malpractice claim against your criminal defense attorney if your conviction remains undisturbed'. The only way around this rule is if you can claim that you were innocent of the crime for which you were convicted. In this case the incarcerated client filed suit pro-se (representing himself) and his complaint failed to allege that he was innocent and wrongfully convicted due to the negligence of his attorney.

The Court kindly granted the plaintiff 30 days to move to vacate the dismissal. In other words, he gave a pro se plaintiff one more opportunity to properly draft a credible complaint with a claim that he was actually innocent of the crimes for which he was convicted AND that "but for" the negligence of his attorney, he would have been found innocent. Roy v Seidler, 2018 WL 286109