On many occasions, an attorney will decide that he/she no longer wishes to represent a client.  That decision can be grounded upon a whole constellation of reasons.  When that occurs, an attorney must be extremely careful as to the manner and method in which that disengagement occurs, especially where the statute of limitation time-bar is looming.  Under an attorney’s Rules of Professional Conduct, the attorney may withdraw from a client’s case only if it will not have a material adverse effect on the client.  Moreover, these Rules of Professional Responsibility require an attorney to take all steps reasonable necessary to protect the client’s interest.  If an attorney decides to quit an attorney/client relationship on the eve of the statute of limitations, liability may be imposed against the attorney. 

In one case, an attorney was found not to have been negligent when he abandoned an attorney/client relationship several weeks before the statute of limitations had run.  In that case, the court concluded that the issue was extremely fact sensitive and since the client in that case was a sophisticated business person who worked with lawyers on a regular basis, it was not unreasonable to think that the client would be able to engage an attorney before the statute of limitations ran.  In another recent case,  where the client was not as sophisticated, the court was disinclined to dismiss the client’s claim against the attorney for abandoning the client on the eve of the statute of limitations.