As per the given scenario, Sam was served with the summons and complaint seven days ago and your team prepared the answer and submitted it to the court to meet the deadline of 13 days. Later, when the attorney discovered that the secretary stole the client's cash and left the job, he came to know that the answer was never filed and served. As a result, a default judgement was entered against your client, Sam.
Now, the attorney has asked you to research whether the "law office failure" statute will cover him for this or whether he should file a claim with his malpractice carrier.
As a skilled paralegal, it is essential to understand that the law office failure statute provides a mechanism for attorneys to claim relief from certain deadlines, but only in situations where no party's substantive rights are compromised. However, in this case, due to the negligence of the secretary and the attorney's failure to exercise reasonable care in supervising the secretary, the substantive rights of the client were harmed.
Therefore, it is unlikely that the Law office failure statute would cover the attorney in this situation. Instead, the attorney should consider filing a claim with his malpractice carrier as a viable option to pay for damages to the client.
As a paralegal, it is your responsibility to present the research thoroughly to the attorney to help him make an informed decision and advise the client accordingly.