I'll try to address this point by point.
The information that was withheld was the actual court date to appear. The lawyer knew when it was but did not tell the client.
A court appearance date is something the lawyer (or their office) should pass on to the client, assuming the client's appearance isn't required. If the client is required to be there, lawyers are required to inform them of that. Good practice says this is done in writing (including email), to make sure there are no "he said-she said" disputes later on, but it is often done verbally. Have they claimed to have given you the court date (by any method) and you forgot, or do they admit they never told you?
The client made numerous attempts by phone as well as email to try and setup meetings to go over the case but was evaded.
Depending on what time frame we're talking here, this could be meaningless, or it could be extremely unprofessional. Unlikely either is sanctionable conduct though.
The only correspondence was that basically they wanted money and if the client did not like the service then to fire the law firm.
What (exactly) did they want the money for? If it was for anything but their hourly fees, it would be your responsibility to pay. If you didn't, and failed to fire them, they are not required to work for free and can withdraw from the case (see my prior link).
The lawyer used that last statement in an email.
And you're positive you have no other emails from them with the "missing" court date? (You don't want to make that argument only to have them come in with a copy of the email).
The lawyer did not go to court but sent an unknown and did not make any attempts to inform the client of his actions.
What was the appearance for? However, there is no "requirement" to tell you who will cover the appearance (any lawyer from the firm can do it).
The client was informed by the court that the date was missed and if the future date is missed the client would lose the case by default.
A little unclear here - if the "unknown" went to court, how was the date "missed"? Either they went and they date wasn't missed, or they didn't actually go and the date
was missed. The former is a clerical error by the court, and the latter could be malpractice.
Assuming the court did give a "second chance" for you to appear though, it seems no matter what your current lawyers did, you didn't suffer any adverse effects from this whole scenario. Why do you think you "lost" the case?
