Legal Malpractice

Jailed and Now Must Pay Legal Malpractice Award

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

Campbell Holder, an attorney in Manhattan has the dubious honor of being a jailed legal malpractice defendant.  A significant judgment was just entered against him in Federal District Court.  The New York Law Journal reports:

"An imprisoned former attorney was ordered to pay $250,000 in damages to a client whose case against the Metro-North Commuter Railroad was lost because the lawyer failed to oppose a motion for summary judgment.

Campbell Holder, in prison for stealing over $1.6 million from clients, defaulted on a judgment sought by Christine Robinson, the widow of former Metro-North conductor Charles Robinson.

Mr. Robinson claimed Metro-North forced him into in-patient drug rehabilitation followed a positive drug test on Feb. 8, 1993. Told he would lose his job if he did not comply, Mr. Robinson entered Gracie Square Hospital on March 1, 1993.

He had asked for an independent analysis of his urine test, and on March 5, his physician informed Metro-North that the result of the retest was negative and that Mr. Robinson should be released from the hospital.

But the railroad instructed Gracie Square not to release him until he finished rehabilitation. Mr. Robinson was not discharged until March 29, 1993.

Claiming negligence against the railroad and assault and abuse at the hands of other patients at the hospital, Mr. Robinson retained Mr. Holder to sue Metro-North."

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on August 11, 2008 (boomark / email).