RPC 1.1 Competence

Your lawyer must handle your case with proper care and skill. This means they cannot make serious mistakes or ignore your legal matter, and they cannot have a history of doing these things with other clients either.

If a lawyer handles your case so poorly that it goes beyond simple mistakes and rises to the level of gross negligence, they can face professional discipline. The same is true if they have a pattern of being careless or inattentive across multiple cases, even if no single mistake was extreme.

This rule exists to protect you as a client. If you believe your lawyer is ignoring your case, missing deadlines, or making serious errors, you may have grounds to file a complaint with the New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics.