Barner

In Wiley v. County of San Diego (1998) 19 Cal.4th 532 [ 79 Cal.Rptr.2d 672 , 966 P.2d 983 ], we held that in a legal malpractice action against an attorney for alleged negligence in representing the plaintiff (the accused in a criminal action), the plaintiff must establish, as a necessary element of the malpractice cause of action, that he or she is actually innocent of the offense charged in the underlying criminal proceeding. Our holding in Wiley applies to legal malpractice claims asserted against both private attorneys and public defenders, and in that case we were not confronted with the issue whether a public defender is entitled to statutory immunity for his or her acts or omissions in representing a criminal defendant. We granted review in the present case to decide whether the immunity for discretionary acts set forth in Government Code section 820.2 applies to a deputy public defender’s representation of a defendant in a criminal action.

Defendant Julie Leeds is a deputy public defender who represented plaintiff Glenn Russell Earner in a criminal action that resulted in Earner’s conviction. After the conviction was set aside and Earner obtained a judicial…