Legal Malpractice

Narrow Retainer leads to Dismissal in Legal Malpractice

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

Sometimes its obvious what responsibilities the attorney will take on in a new representation.  If it's a motor vehicle accident, then the attorney is hired to prosecute the personal injury action, up to and including trial.  Here, in  Hallman v Kantor ;2010 NY Slip Op 03280 ;Decided on April 20, 2010 ;Appellate Division, Second Department  the attorneys took on a more limited role.
 

From the decision:  "The defendants submitted a retainer agreement reflecting that the plaintiff "understood, accepted and agreed" that the "scope of" their "engagement" was "to represent" her as a co-executor of her deceased father's estate. This documentary evidence conclusively established a defense to the plaintiff's claims of malpractice. The plaintiff alleged that she was the subject of a pending lawsuit, in effect, to recover sums of money due under certain notes she executed before her father died, and that the defendants committed legal malpractice by, inter alia, failing to speak with her "about the circumstances surrounding [her] signing of [those] notes," and failing to "question[ ]" their "validity." However, the documentary evidence demonstrated that the plaintiff's individual liability on the notes was a matter outside of the scope of the defendants' representation of the plaintiff in her capacity as co-executor of the estate (see CPLR 3211[a][1]; AmBase Corp. v Davis Polk & Wardwell, 8 NY3d 428, 435; DeNatale v Santangelo, 65 AD3d 1006, 1007; Turner v Irving Finkelstein & Meirowitz, LLP, 61 AD3d 849, 850). [*2]"

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on April 23, 2010 (boomark / email).