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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

Out of State Attorneys and Legal Malpractice

Posted on May 07, 2009
Originally dismissed in Supreme Court, this case was re-instated by the Appellate Division, First Department last week. Mortenson v Shea ;2009 NY Slip Op 03611 ;Decided on May 5, 2009 Appellate Division, First Department is a situation in which a New Jersey law firm was retained to sue a New York law firm for legal malpractice...

Did Plaintiff Settle her Way into a Legal Malpractice Case?

Posted on May 06, 2009
This case took several readings to try and sort out the story. Plaintiff in this legal malpractice case, Citrin v Baratta & Goldstein ;2009 NY Slip Op 03597 ;Decided on May 5, 2009 ;Appellate Division, First Department was a defendant in the underlying action...

Intermittent and Continuous Representation in Legal Malpractice

Posted on May 05, 2009
In Byron Chem. Co., Inc. v. Groman; 2009 NY Slip Op 03465 ; Decided on April 28, 2009 ; Appellate Division, Second Department plaintiff employer sued its attorneys for an employee benefit provision which was drafted by attorney firm 1, which was then taken over by attorney firm 2...

A World Apart in Legal Malpractice

Posted on May 04, 2009
From time to time we forget that Louisiana is a completely different environment. Its laws are different, its emphasis is different, and even its terms are wholly different. Here is an article from Hinshaw & Culbertson on the case of McGuire v...

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Pro-Se Legal Malpractice Litigation

Posted on May 01, 2009
Attorneys gnash their teeth when litigating against pro-se parties. The thought is that the pro-se gets an advantage; they are not held to tight deadlines, are not the subject of rule-specific dismissal, nor are they required to hew to the line of traditional court procedure...

Real Retention, Privity and Legal Malpractice

Posted on April 30, 2009
The informal way some people go about hiring an attorney is well documents in a new case decided by Justice Ling-Cohan in Camone v. Levy, 2009 Slip Op 30843(U). Here plaintiff trustee is of a generation skipping trust, and attorney is shown materials in order for him to tell plaintiff whether a federal estate tax return must be filed...

Nominal Damages in a $55 Million Dollar Legal Malpractice Case

Posted on April 29, 2009
Here, in an article from NY Lawyer is the shocking outcome of a huge London legal malpractice case. Linklatters, on trial for $ 55 Million ends up paying $ 5 [actually 5 pounds] as a nominal verdict. Queery: no motion for summary judgment? In NY courts, we see such outcomes in pre-answer motions and in motions for summary judgment...

Insanity and Legal Malpractice

Posted on April 28, 2009
Is an attorney required to perform more work that set forth in a retainer agreement? If the attorney does not perform more work, will the statute of limitations be tolled by the client's insanity? These two questions are partially answered in Turner v Irving Finkelstein & Meirowitz, LLP ;2009 NY Slip Op 03158 ;Decided on April 21, 2009 ;Appellate Division, Second Department ...

When the Damages are Huge, Look for Legal Malpractice to Follow

Posted on April 27, 2009
This story from Law.Com by Zusha Elinson tells of the aftermath of a $ 82 million Sony Patent case, with its reports of witness buying, false testimony and unreliable evidence. From the Legal Malpractice perspective here is the nugget: "Craig Thorner was the key witness in the Sony legal team's effort to overturn an $82 million patent infringement verdict in a case against Immersion Corp...

Multi-State Legal Malpractice and the Borrower Statute

Posted on April 24, 2009
California corporation retains New York law firm to process a trademark application, which fails. California plaintiff sues New York defendant for legal malpractice in Federal District Court, SDNY. Case is dismissed on jurisdictional basis...

Contingent Fee Retainers, Appellate Work and Legal Malpractice

Posted on April 23, 2009
When may the representation of a client end, what work does an attorney have to do for a contingent fee client, and how do legal malpractice considerations filter in? Those questions are answered, in this context, in Matter of Mill Creek Phase 1 , Supreme Court, Kings County, Gerges, J...

Law Firm Retainers and Legal Malpractice

Posted on April 22, 2009
We're continuing to discuss the Howard S. Davis article in the New York Law Journal on April 17, 2009. How does the written attorney retainer agreement relate to an attorney malpractice case? Is the attorney responsible for handling an appeal, a wrongful death proceeding in Surrogate's Court, a supplemental trust? Is a fee earned when there is a successful appeal after an adverse outcome? Davis writes: "The leading case in New York on the interpretation of attorney retainer agreements is Shaw v...

Trustee's Standing in Legal Malpractice

Posted on April 21, 2009
A bankruptcy trustee "steps into the shoes of the debtor" and obtains certain benefits from this power. In Kirschner v. Grant Thornton we see that there are limits to that power. As Mark Hamblett writes in today's NYLJ: "Southern District Judge Gerard E...

Ahorn Legal Malpractice, and Retainer Agreements

Posted on April 20, 2009
In Arkansas Department of Human Services v. Ahlborn, 547 U.S. 268, 126 S. Ct. 1752, it was "held that from a $550,000 negotiated settlement in a case arising from a car accident, the Arkansas Medicaid authority could recover only $35,581.47 (about one-sixth) of the $215,645...

Ahlborn Legal Malpractice, and Retainer Agreements

Relation-Back and the Statute of Limitations in Legal Malpractice

Posted on April 17, 2009
A recent case Carl v. Cohen, Supreme Court, New York County, Justice Edmead 2009 NY Slip OP 30806(U), April 15, 2009 illustrates two distinct principals. The first is privilege and at issue communications which we discussed on April 15. The second principal is relation-back and the statute of limitations...

Turnabout in Legal Malpractice Defense Motion

Posted on April 16, 2009
One of the more interesting memes in legal malpractice is the inevitable turnabout that is played out by the target attorney. Once the advocate for plaintiff, the target attorney immediately turns around to show the holes in, and deficiencies of plaintiff's position...

At Issue Privilege in Legal Malpractice

Posted on April 15, 2009
A recent case Carl v. Cohen, Supreme Court, New York County, Justice Edmead 2009 NY Slip OP 30806(U), April 15, 2009 illustrates two distinct principals. The first is privilege and at issue communications. The second principal, to be discussed on Friday, is relation-back and the statute of limitations...

Contribution and Indemnity in Legal Malpractice

Posted on April 14, 2009
A NYC fact pattern in legal malpractice: Plaintiff, a MD wishes to buy a co-op for use as a physician's office. She finds a prior doctor's office and hires attorney and engineering company to do the deal. Plaintiff buys the unit only to find out that the certificate of occupancy is for residential use and not for professional space...

An Appeal Decided in Summary Fashion in Legal Malpractice

Posted on April 13, 2009
This recent appellate case McCluskey v Gabor & Gabor, 2009 NY Slip Op 02757 Decided on April 7, 2009 Appellate Division, Second Department illustrates the difference between malpractice at the trial level and at the appellate level. At the trial level one must prove the usual :"a plaintiff must demonstrate that the attorney failed to exercise the ordinary reasonable skill and knowledge commonly possessed by a member of the legal profession' and that the attorney's breach of this duty proximately caused plaintiff to sustain actual and ascertainable damages" (Rudolf v Shayne, Dachs, Stanisci, Corker & Sauer, 8 NY3d 438, 442, quoting McCoy v Feinman, 99 NY2d 295, 301-302; see Noone v Stieglitz, 59 AD3d 505)...

In a Land where Malpractice Insurance Coverage is Published, You Must be Honest

Posted on April 10, 2009
From theLaw Profession Blog we report on this Arizona Disciplinary Case in which the exitence of attorney malpractice insurance was published. The attorney was disciplined as we see in the order. "An Arizona hearing officer has recommended the disbarment of an attorney for misconduct in several matters...

Cruise Ship Negligence and Legal Malpractice

Posted on April 09, 2009
Cruise Ship Season comes and goes, and even in poor economic times, the ships carry many people to their vacations. As in all events human, there will be accidents and injury. The very nature of cruise ships, their location and the mere fact that they travel on water, complicates the legal horizon...

An Attorney's Mistake with No Remedy in Legal Malpractice

Posted on April 08, 2009
Nature abhors a vacuum, they told us in high school and the law abhors a wrong without a remedy. One particular area of legal malpractice where this curers is criminal defense, in which no legal malpractice action might be brought by a convicted defendant, no matter whether the attorney's mistakes contributed, or caused the conviction...

Fee Suits and Legal Malpractice Counterclaims - A Constant Duo

Posted on April 07, 2009
"The best defense is a strong offense"..."Tyranny shall not go unopposed!" which of these two opposing story lines will succeed in a legal fee / legal malpractice case. Here is one example where the fee side wins out. Duane Morris LLP v Astor Holdings Inc...

A Very Strange Case of Legal Malpractice and Fees

Posted on April 03, 2009
Taking over a pro-se case can be dangerous, as an attorney in NJ has recently found out. In this story from Law.Com recounts the attorney took over after a pro-se college professor started a employment discrimination law suit: "A lawyer who prevailed in a Title VII suit three years ago has been engaged since then in an unusual fee fight: against her own client, who says his pro se work entitles him to keep the fees awarded...

New Life in a 700 Year Old Legal Malpractice Statute

Posted on April 02, 2009
Judiciary Law sec. 487 is perhaps our oldest statute, certainly the oldest statute in existence concerning legal malpractice. Recently the Court of Appeals decided Amalfitano v. Rosenberg. Now we are seeing a resurgence of interest, and in this particular case a court reconsidering its earlier decision to dismiss a Judiciary Law 487 case based upon the Court of Appeals Decision...

Fee Sharing and Legal Malpractice

Posted on April 01, 2009
The Court of Appeals decided an interesting attorney fee sharing case today, in which the successful attorneys called their referring attorneys "unethical" and then promptly lost the case. Samuel v Druckman & Sinel, LLP 2009 NY Slip Op 02447 Decided on March 31, 2009 Court of Appeals Pigott, J...

Legal Malpractice and an Injunction Against Future Cases

Posted on March 31, 2009
Among the many weapons a court has is the rarely used injunction against future case filings. After all, it's a citizen's right to sue. One of our favorite New Yorker cartoons is the young child asking her mom when she will be old enough to sue someone...

Legal Malpractice is Different, After All

Posted on March 30, 2009
In this particular case, it is possible to read through the entire Appellate decision and not even know what was alleged against the attorneys. Rather, on summary judgment, the court determines that plaintiff could not have won against the insurer, hence, legal malpractice case is dismissed...

Is it The Economy or Just Plain Legal Malpractice?

Posted on March 27, 2009
Law.Com reprints an interesting article from the Texas Lawyer on the relationship between the economy and legal malpractice litigation. One theory is that plaintiffs are more in need of recovery, and will either bring more legal malpractice law suits, or are willing to sue over smaller sums...

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