On February 7, 2017, an intermediate appellate court denied a lawyer's motion to dismiss a legal malpractice suit which claimed that the lawyer failed to timely file a motion to reopen a deportation order, for over one year, which caused the claimant to be deported. The claimant alleged that the deportation resulted in her being denied permission to return to the United States for almost two years and resulted in the loss of her job.

The Court dismissed the plaintiff's claim for emotional distress finding that in the absence of a claim of extreme and outrageous attorney misconduct, emotional injuries are not generally not recoverable in a legal malpractice case. The Court's ruling only signified that the claimant was entitled to have her case heard by a jury, in the absence of any other evidence developed in litigation indicating that a timely motion to reopen the deportation order would have been denied anyway.