Legal Malpractice

How Much Can You Get Away With in Legal Malpractice

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

This disciplinary proceedings makes for a shocking read.  This attorney went from a successful practice, to a legal malpractice claim, to a huge judgment against him in Federal Court, to the twists and turns which led to incarceration.  Why?  Because of a lie in a resume.  in Matter of Dorfman ;2011 NY Slip Op 00440 ;Decided on January 27, 2011 ;Appellate Division, First Department ;Per Curiam we see what happens when an attorney doesn't want to pay a judgment.  Eventually he reduces the payment to $ 50,000 but look what he ended up doing:

"After being hired by Baker to bring suit against the New York City Department of Health as a result of a medical testing error, respondent failed to file a timely notice of claim and failed to seek leave to file a late notice, resulting in dismissal of the action and prompting Baker to bring suit for legal malpractice and fraud in the Southern District of New York (Baker v Dorfman, 1999 WL 191531 [SD NY 1999], affd 239 F3d 415 [2nd Cir 2000]). A federal jury found that respondent had indeed induced Baker to retain him by furnishing a resume that patently misrepresented respondent's experience as a litigator. The jury awarded Baker compensatory damages of $360,000 and punitive damages of $25,000 (id.). 

After respondent repeatedly failed to make payments required under the agreement, the federal court modified its order and imposed various restrictions on respondent, inter alia, limiting his business and personal expenditures and generally confining his personal travel to the City of New York and his business travel to New York State and New Jersey (Baker v Dorfman, 2006 WL 988756)[SD NY 2006]. The order was subsequently modified and certain provisions added, but respondent's compliance was still not forthcoming. The federal court — indicating that respondent may have violated added requirements to report expenses in excess of $100, to limit hiring at his law firm and restrict support staff to two full-time staff members — referred the matter for prosecution by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (Baker v Dorfman, 2006 WL 988747 [SD NY 2006]). Respondent ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of criminal contempt in violation of 18 USC § 401(3), and on December 19, 2007, the court sentenced him to two years' probation, including six days' community confinement in a halfway house.

In testimony before a Hearing Panel in October 2009, respondent disclosed that in the Spring of that year, after the instant "serious crime" petition was filed, he settled the Baker judgment for $50,000 using money provided by his wife.As to his violation of probation, on May 28, 2009, respondent pleaded guilty to traveling outside the judicial district without court leave — to Paris in 2008 and to Rome in March 2009. Respondent also pleaded guilty to lying to a probation officer in March 2009 concerning the Paris trip, which he only acknowledged after being required to produce his passport for inspection. While professing unawareness of the travel restrictions before the Hearing Panel, respondent had conceded such knowledge at his plea allocution some four months earlier. In a post-hearing submission that included documents relevant to his probation violation, respondent admitted that, in addition to the two European trips, he had traveled to Arizona and Boston in 2008 without court leave. 

On August 6, 2009, respondent was sentenced in Federal District Court on the probation violation. While commenting on respondent's "various dishonest and deceptive maneuvers to avoid paying a judgment that he owed Mr. Baker," which was construed as a "pattern of deception," the court concluded that "this is something deeply embedded in his character, not [*4]something that's going to change . . . during a period of supervision." The court thereupon sentenced respondent to 30 days' imprisonment without any further period of supervision. "

Dorf was suspended for a year by the Committee.

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on January 28, 2011 (boomark / email).