Chaffee v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 5 district · 56 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 69 later decisions — most recently November 2022 · most notably Hedlund Manufacturing Co. v. Weiser, Stapler & Spivak (1988), Vinson & Elkins v. Moran (1997)
2 federal appellate · 5 district · 56 state decisions — followed in 16 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on 62 Cal. App. 3d 389 - Goodley v. Wank & Wank, Inc. · 83 Ill. App. 3d 334 - Christison v. Jones · Collins v. Fitzwater
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 69 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the decision as to whether to bring a malpractice action against an attorney is one peculiarly vested in the client.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[a] s a matter of public policy, we cannot permit enforcement of a legal malpractice action which has been transferred by assignment . . . but which was never pursued by the original client.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“opinion on the question as to whether previously asserted legal malpractice actions are transferable.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.