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Legal Malpractice

New York Attorney Malpractice Blog

Legal Malpractice Attorney & Lawyer
By Andrew Bluestone

Post Frequency: 9.8/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 06:03:18

Patent Litigation and Breach of Fiduciary Duty

Posted on August 26, 2010
Patent Litigators held their breath all through the summer, as the Supreme Court considered whether a patent could be enforced in the Internet process area. Bilski v. Kapos was decided by terms end, but did not really put the issues to bed. Apparently, while others were holding their breath, this plaintiff/client and her attorney were starting their own litigation cycle...

Contingent Fees and Legal Malpractice Discussed

Posted on August 25, 2010
Sanna v Polizzotto ;2010 NY Slip Op 51496(U) ;Decided on August 23, 2010 ;Supreme Court, Richmond County ;Minardo, J. discusses several interesting aspects of legal representation, contingent fees, what is unconscionable in contingencies, and legal malpractice...

Medical Malpractice Settlements and Legal Malpractice

Posted on August 24, 2010
In Brackman v Medical Liab. Mut. Ins. Co. ; 2010 NY Slip Op 51432(U); Supreme Court, Nassau County , Winslow, J. we see an unusual but doctrinaire situation in which a doctor sues his defense attorneys for settling a case in which he was sued. The decision lays bare the method by which medical malpractice insurers settle cases...

When is Legal Malpractice Ripe?

Posted on August 23, 2010
Bankruptcy and legal malpractice have a special relationship. There are special rules, there are collateral estoppel dimensions to fee requests, and the mere filing of bankruptcy may end a plaintiff's right to a cause of action. Here, in GREENSTREET FINANCIAL, L...

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Client's Fiduciary Duty and Legal Malpractice

Posted on August 20, 2010
It being a Friday in the Summer, we bring you legal malpractice news from the Jersey Shore, by way of Law.Com. Legal malpractice issues arise wherever attorneys represent clients. Clients sometimes bear some portion of the blame when cases/transactions go sour...

How Bankruptcy Proceedings Influence Legal Malpractice Cases

Posted on August 19, 2010
In Garnett v. Fox Horan & Camerini LLP the unusually but by no means novel situation arises where a "liquidating trustee" sues the debtor's pre-petition attorney for acts that may have led to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Here, in a decision by Justice Jane Solomon, of Supreme Court, New York County Boylan International, Inc...

The Morris Eisen Saga Continues in the Fee Realm

Posted on August 18, 2010
Landau P.C. v. Goldstein is the latest chapter in the Morris Eisen saga. Once king of the Woolworth Building, Morris Eisen PC was perhaps the largest/most powerful plaintiff's personal injury law firm in NYC. The firm had a full floor there, comprising half a city block...

Legal Malpractice for Lack of an Appeal

Posted on August 16, 2010
We report mostly on New York cases, but on ocassion, our net is more widespread. Today, a story from Massachussets. Its a big number legal malpractice case in which no appeal was filed. From Law.Com and Sheri Qualters at The National Law "Massachusetts' high court has ruled that Jackson Lewis and Winokur Serkey & Rosenberg of Plymouth, Mass...

Summary Judgment For Plaintiff in a Legal Malpractice Case

Posted on August 13, 2010
It's rare, but here is a case in which plaintiff was granted summary judgment against the target attorney in a legal malpractice case. in Anne Koplick Designs, Inc. v Lite ; 010 NY Slip Op 06356 Decided on August 10, 2010 ; Appellate Division, Second Department ...

When Is it Too Early to Sue in Legal Malpractice?

Posted on August 12, 2010
It may be too late to sue, which implicates the statute of limitations. Then again, it may be too early to sue, Why would one bring an action too soon? The answer is that sometimes time could run out before events can support a legal malpractice case which will mature later...

Guardians, Attorneys and Legal Malpractice

Posted on August 10, 2010
Guardians, Referees and other court appointees have a qualified immunity to suit. At a bare minimum, permission from the court is required before bringing suit. Here in Cangro v. Solomon Justice Edmead of Supreme Court, New York County sets forth the rules in three areas: suing guardians, privity and an eventual requirement that permission be sought before suing either of these attorneys again...

Collateral Estoppel in Legal Malpractice

Posted on August 09, 2010
One may lose the right to bring a legal malpractice case based on earlier attorney fee dispute resolution. In this case , Margrabe v. Sexter & Warmflash, PC, 07-CV-2798, District Judge Kenneth M. Karas, SDNY, we see just how the process operates. Plaintiff retains attorneys to represent her in a shareholder derivative matter...

Legal Malpractice is A Case Within a Case

Posted on August 06, 2010
As yet another example of why legal malpractice is a difficult discipline, here is a case in which there was a failure to file a counterclaim, The legal malpractice case ends in dismissal, because the Appellate Division determines that the counterclaim, even if made would have failed...

The Difference Between Breach of Fiduciary Duty and Legal Malpractice

Posted on August 05, 2010
Gina Passarella of the Legal Intelligenser reports on a case from Philadelphia that illustrates the difference between Breach of Fiduciary Duty and Legal Malpractice involving Cravath, Swaine & Moore. and Airgas, inc. From the article: 'U...

Why Is Legal Malpractice Different for Criminals?

Posted on August 04, 2010
Legal Malpractice rules are either legislated or court created. There is no general underpinning such as an amendment to the Constitution, nor is there a basic common law history (with the very notable exception of the area of attorney deceit, which is as old as the Magna Carta...

A Curious Intertwining of Legal Malpractice and Bankruptcy

Posted on August 03, 2010
BAKER, -v.- CHARLES SIMPSON, WINDELS MARX LANE & MITTENDORF, LLP is the story of a Chapter 7 petitioner whose case was converted into a Chapter 11 proceeding. He had counsel appointed, who then represented him until the end of the proceedings...

Lawyer's Fund and Legal Malpractice

Posted on August 02, 2010
Cases in which attorneys steal money rather than lose money [or commit blunders which lose otherwise meritorious cases] are in the jurisdiction of the New York Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection. This fund fills an important role, and covers areas which will not be susceptible to a legal malpractice case...

The Rare Defense Legal Malpractice Case

Posted on July 30, 2010
Attorneys for insurance carriers are rarely the subject of a legal malpractice case...it is much more often plaintiff's attorney. The Poppe law firm blog reports this case of a car insurance defense attorney who goes to trial on the underlying auto accident without ever meeting with the client, and to make matters worse, admits liability without the client's consent...

Attorneys, Billing and Clients

Posted on July 29, 2010
The rules for attorney billing are different from those of any other profession. While the general principals are the same, attorneys are required to utilize retainer agreements, or a similar document, while this is not true for accountants, dentists, etc...

Why is this a NY Legal Malpractice Case?

Posted on July 28, 2010
Patriot Exploration, LLC v Thompson & Knight LLP ; 2010 NY Slip Op 06217 ; Decided on July 27, 2010 ; appellate Division, First Department presents a discussion of forum non conveniens as well as the question of why this is a NY case? Defendants wanted the case to be moved to Texas, notwithstanding the 2 year statute of limitations...

It's Legal Malpractice Thrown in at the End

Posted on July 27, 2010
Nelson v. Patterson, 2010 NY Slip Op 31799 [Justice Mdden in NY County Supreme Court] is a case about loans, employment contracts, fraud and, oh yes, legal malpractice. After a discussion of breached employment contracts and the like, the court grants plaintiff's request to add a cause of action for quantum meruit...

Starting Point of the Statute of Limitations Can Be Confusing

Posted on July 26, 2010
When does the statute of limitations start to run in legal malpractice? Is it on the day that former attorneys are "substituted out" or perhaps on the day that successor counsel sign a retainer agreement? One answer is found in Fur Online v...

When Does the Statute of Limitations Start in Legal Malpractice?

Posted on July 23, 2010
Frederick v Meighan ; 2010 NY Slip Op 06076 ;Decided on July 13, 2010 ;Appellate Division, Second Department is a case in which Supreme Court dismissed, sua sponte on the basis of statute of limitations, the Appellate Division reversed. When does the statute of limitations start to run in legal malpractice? The easy answer is as of the date of the mistake, or, with continuing representation, on the last day the attorneys represent plaintiff...

Financial Downturn and Fraud Coupled with Legal Malpractice

Posted on July 22, 2010
The question of whether legal malpractice litigation is tied to [and affected by] downturns in the financial and economic worlds is often asked. Our answer is that legal malpractice litigation is apt to come up in every situation where attorneys are present...

Legal Malpractice Claims Reinstated Against Boies Schiller

Posted on July 21, 2010
Yesterday, the Appellate Division, First Department, reversed Supreme Court and reinstated the negligence causes of action on behalf of Mary Anne Fletcher against Boies Schiller in Fletcher v Boies, Schiller & Flexner, LLP; 2010 NY Slip Op 06140 ;Decided on July 20, 2010 ...

Sometimes It Just Wasn't the Attorney in Legal Malpractice

Posted on July 20, 2010
One theme that we have considered over the years is whether attorneys get preferential treatment in legal malpractice litigation. Are motions to dismiss granted on too little evidence? Do the attorneys get the benefit of the doubt? Is the fact that legal malpractice law is written mostly by attorneys, is decided upon by attorneys and affects attorneys sometimes dispositive of the outcome? Well, all that aside, sometimes the client just can't help themselves...

9/11 and Judicary Law 487 in Legal Malpractice

Posted on July 19, 2010
9/11 is almost 10 years behind us. Its direct effects may have passed, but the indirect effects still resonate. Here is a fraud, foreclosure scam and legal malpractice case which arises out of the post 9/11 world. Cullen v. Steinberg, 2010 U...

Mistake Upon Mistake in Legal Malpractice

Posted on July 16, 2010
At the outset, we find that the Supreme Court improvidently exercised its discretion in, sua sponte, directing dismissal of the complaint insofar as asserted against the Meighan defendants pursuant to CPLR 3211(a)(4) in view of the continued pendency of the first legal malpractice action against those defendants, which relief was not requested by any party in this action (see Clair v Fitzgerald, 63 AD3d 979, 980; Frankel v Stavsky, 40 AD3d 918, 919)...

A Pro-se Legal Malpractice Case Falters

Posted on July 15, 2010
Tsafatinos v Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, LLP ;2010 NY Slip Op 06085 ;decided on July 13, 2010 ;Appellate Division, Second Department is short on details as to how and why the legal malpractice case was filed on a date the Appellate Division determined to be too late...

A Bad-good Result is not Legal Malpractice

Posted on July 14, 2010
Justice Gische, of Supreme Court, New York County has written a number of legal malpractice decisions over the years. One recently decided is Kleinser v Astarita NY Slip Op 31675U. Here, plaintiff was a trader and employee of Rockrimon Securities...

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