Legal Malpractice

Morris J. Eisen Legal Malpractice Case Proceeds

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

He was one of the best known, and feared plaintiff's attorneys in New York.  He had entire floors of offices at the Woolworth building in lower Manhattan, and early every morning a large number of trial attorneys would gather for breakfast and pick up their day's work.  The Eisen and Napoli firm won gazillions of dollars in verdicts until it all ended.

Eisen has been pursuing a legal malpractice case against his own former attorneys for years, and yesterday the Court of Appeals gave it a green light to continue. 

The NYLJ reports:  "The Court of Appeals yesterday revived a legal malpractice suit against law firm Larossa, Mitchell & Ross over its representation of a personal injury lawyer found to have defrauded New York City by fabricating evidence in tort cases.

The suit, which was previously dismissed because Larossa's ex-client was in dissolution, cannot now be barred on res judicata grounds against a successor firm, the court ruled.

The case stems from the travails of the law firm Morris J. Eisen PC. Once one of the New York's top personal injury firms, the firm was accused by the city of falsifying evidence in a 1986 civil suit. Seven lawyers and investigators for the firm, including Morris J. Eisen, were subsequently targeted by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and convicted on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act charges in 1991.

Mr. Eisen had been represented in the criminal case by James M. Larossa, and the Larossa firm also represented the Eisen firm in the civil suit by the city. Eisen first tried to bring a legal malpractice suit against Larossa after a court granted partial summary judgment to the city on its fraud claims. The city was awarded $2.1 million.

The suit claimed Larossa did not adequately oppose the city's summary judgment motion, failing to present evidence that would have shown that, notwithstanding any false testimony, the city was actually responsible for the injuries in the cases at issue.

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Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on June 27, 2008 (boomark / email).