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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

Will Medicare Create New Field of Legal Malpractice?

Posted on April 01, 2011
Reporting obligations, payments of money, and settlement of cases. These are all regular and usual areas for attorney attention. In the past, settlement of medical malpractice cases definitely had rules and obligations. Infants had to get their compromises, the infirm had to get their guardians, many a settlement had to pass judicial scrutiny...

A Legal Malpractice Cases Nears its Bar Mitzvah

Posted on March 31, 2011
This legal malpractice traces its birth to a 2000 tolling agreement between a long lost law firm, Tenzer Greenblatt and Kramer Levin, which took place in Delaware. In 1996 investors started what would be a bankruptcy bound law suit over an investment firm...

A Legal Malpractice Case Back From Civil Court with New Vigor

Posted on March 30, 2011
Procedure is king in legal malpractice and elsewhere. How does a good case end up in Civil Court. Sometimes an inexperienced practitioner, or a pro-se litigant who is trying to save $ 175 might start the case in Civil Court rather than Supreme, and sometimes a judge will transfer the case pursuant to CPLR 325d rather than handle it (or sometimes to punish plaintiff's attorney...

So, Who is At Fault Here? Is it Legal Malpractice?

Posted on March 29, 2011
Jail over Christmas...is there anything worse? Well, yes of course there is, yet being jailed for the holidays is pretty bad. That's what happened to plaintiff here. Was it her fault or her attorneys? in Minkow v Sanders ;2011 NY Slip Op 02120 ; Decided on March 24, 2011 ; Appellate Division, First Department we see the fault placed on plaintiff's shoulders and the attorney obtaining dismisal of the legal malpractice case...

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Doctor Loses Trial in a Legal Malpractice Case

Posted on March 28, 2011
Doctors and lawyers, legal and medical malpractice. The two fields of law have many similarities, and in this case they are all mixed up. Doctor hires attorney to handle a purchase of a Co-op for use as a medical office. It turns out that there is no certificate of occupancy for use as a medical office...

Do the Big Boys Kiss and Tell (II)

Posted on March 25, 2011
We discussed Hinshaw & Culbertson, LLP v e-Smart Tech., Inc.; 2011 NY Slip Op 30651(U); March 18, 2011; Sup Ct, New York County; Docket Number: 113108/09; Judge: Judith J. Gische on the question of dropping a client just before a deadline. That shortcoming was held not to be legal malpractice...

Do the Big Firms Kiss and Tell and is it Legal Malpractice?

Posted on March 24, 2011
CLE lecturers almost always warn the listener not to sue for fees. They tell attorneys at the lectures that there will be an inevitable legal malpractice counterclaim. In the case of sole practitioners or small firms, a comparison of their insurance deductible with the fee claim should be made, because they may have to pay the deductible even before they have any possibility of collection...

One Litigation, Many Legal Malpractice Cases Thereafter

Posted on March 23, 2011
The Elite Models litigation, in which a class action set of models challenged the industry practices on expenses and allocation of fees to the models ended with a group of US District Court cases, a multi-million dollar settlement and a raft of legal malpractice cases which followed...

The Successor Attorney Problem in Legal Malpractice

Posted on March 22, 2011
Attorneys move around, and law firms morph. What happens when one attorney is sued for legal malpractice which is said to have taken place at two law firms? One answer is that both firms may be sued in the main action if plaintiff chooses, another choice is the third party action...

What Happens to a Legal Malpractice Case When All Goes Wrong?

Posted on March 21, 2011
The Defendant in this case was a well known (and ground-breaking) legal malpractice attorney who has been in a swirl of late career litigation. There have been RICO cases, there have been intra-office blow-ups, and herein this case he was sued for legal malpractice...

Case is Trimmed but Remains Viable in Legal Malpractice

Posted on March 18, 2011
There are at least three forms of pleading available in a legal malpractice case. The first is malpractice itself, the second breach of contract and the third breach of fiduciary duty. For legal malpractice "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 the plaintiff to sustain actual and ascertainable damages (see Rudolf v Shayne, Dachs, Stanisci, Corker & Sauer, 8 NY3d 438, 442)...

Was the Appeal a Good Idea in Legal Malpractice?

Posted on March 17, 2011
Sometimes, its just better not to continue the fight. Sometimes, when it seems things can't get worse, they might anyway. In Mizuno v Fischoff & Assoc. ;2011 NY Slip Op 01811 ;Decided on March 8, 2011 ;Appellate Division, Second Department defendant attorneys had already lost the fight and had been found to be negligent...

A Familiar Story With No Legal Malpractice Consequences

Posted on March 16, 2011
Where else in the world of law might a party say that they had definitely made a mistake, and definitely departed from good practice, yet be immune? We're not talking about an act too many years ago, or an act that was compelled. Here, in a familiar but fascinating story, attorney Diarmuid White freely admits that he departed from proper standards in representing a client...

How Imprecise Decisions Lead to Imprecise Law in Malpractice

Posted on March 15, 2011
In the sister practice of Medical Malpractice much is similar. The two bodies of law concern the work of professionals, each "treating" or "representing" people. The laws of negligence apply to both, and both departure and causation must be proved at trial...

Has Someone Discovered a Brand New Legal Malpractice Theory?

Posted on March 14, 2011
Last year brought estate v. estate attorney legal malpractice after the Schneider decision in the Court of Appeals. Today's NYLJ brings the story of a law suit against Jacoby & Meyers and Whitehaven Financial Group for legal malpractice and usury...

Suing a Lawyer, But It is Not Legal Malpractice

Posted on March 11, 2011
Once upon a time there were different statutes of limitation for different ways of suing a lawyer. The Court of Appeals recognized a 6 year contract statute and a 3 year tort statute. The legislature changed all that, passing CPLR 324(6) "an action to recover damages for malpractice, other than medical, dental or podiatric malpractice, regardless of whether the underlying theory is based in contract or tort;...

Internal Musings and Legal Malpractice

Posted on March 10, 2011
We read through this case looking for the legal malpractice connection with Gibson Dunn. It took a while. Take a look at this case just to see how many attorneys are listed below the caption. We think this may be a record. When is an e-mail discoverable in a legal malpractice case? In this instance it was not...

Is It Split the Baby in Legal Fee Arbitration?

Posted on March 09, 2011
Today's NYLJ reports a very large attorney fee arbitration award involving "Schulte Roth & Zabel which has been awarded $1.7 million in legal fees as a result of a civil suit filed against private investment firm and former client The Belstar Group...

The Problem of Expert Selection and Legal Malpractice

Posted on March 08, 2011
Experts are often needed in litigation, and always in medical malpractice litigation. Med Mal cases are lost and it is sometimes thought that they are lost because of experts. Was the expert good enough? Did the expert "give" the departures? In Healy v Finz & Finz, P...

Are We Missing Something in this Legal Malpractice Case?

Posted on March 07, 2011
We try to read each new published Appellate Division case in legal malpractice, yet some leave us scratching the head. In Markowitz v Kurzman Eisenberg Corbin Lever & Goodman, LLP ; 2011 NY Slip Op 01626 ; Decided on March 1, 2011 ; Appellate Division, Second Department one defendant attorney has won and kept summary judgment against plaintiff...

Why Do So Many Legal Malpractice Cases Get Dismissed on CPLR 3211?

Posted on March 04, 2011
We believe in several tropes about legal malpractice. One is that we live in a legal centric country, and accordingly, legal malpractice is ubiquitous as well as omnipresent. The second is that legal malpractice cases are treated differently because they are laws written by lawyers, concerning lawyers, and decided upon by lawyers...

An Informal Foray into Legal Malpractice and the Loss of Millions

Posted on March 03, 2011
When we see a business start up and close rapidly, we often wonder how could this happen. When we see a shuttered restaurant we wonder how one entrepreneur's dream could go so wrong. Here, in Wo Yee Hing Realty Corp. v. Stern, Supreme Court, New York County, Justice Debra James we guess at three things: a...

Dissolved, Pro-Se and Out of Luck in a Legal Malpractice Case

Posted on March 02, 2011
Legal malpractice is ubiquitous, and yet, prone to many hurdles. Here, in HOURANEY, -against- BURTON & ASSOCIATES, P.C. and BERNARD BURTON,08-CV-2688 (CBA)(LB); UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK; 2011 U...

Double Legal Malpractice and Recording Mortgages

Posted on March 01, 2011
Mortgages have been with us since the middle ages. One might not expect a legal malpractice case to arise over the filing of a garden or varietal mortgage, yet... In U.S. Bank Natl. Assn. v Stein ; 2011 NY Slip Op 01457 ; Decided on February 22, 2011 ; Appellate Division, Second Department we see not one, but two different law firms sued for legal malpractice...

Attorney Substitution and Later Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 28, 2011
Attorneys can easily be substituted in and out of cases, and personal injury matters are no exception. When client goes from attorney 1 to attorney 2 to attorney 3 the outlook for the case may sometimes be good, and in this case bad. Client was involved in a car accident, and hired attorney 1 to handle the case...

Reasonable Choices and Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 25, 2011
"Medicine is an art and not a science" is a phrase heard at every medical malpractice case, often in summation. This is a folksy restatement of the judgment principal. In law it's slightly different. An attorney may not be held responsible in legal malpractice for a choice of reasonable strategy, even when its a loser...

American Express Has No Attorney

Posted on February 24, 2011
This would be the place for a witty take-off on an American Express ad, playing off the "Don't leave home without..." This however, is a story of how a foreclosure case started, went to judgment, and then unraveled. Attorneys are found to have violated professional standards, and American Express has no attorney in the fight...

Trans-Atlantic Real Estate and Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 23, 2011
A French artist wants to buy an apartment in New York for a studio and living space. So far, this could be the start of a fairy tale in which the artist comes to NY, works hard, triumphs, etc. But, this real estate transaction soon turned to legal malpractice litigation...

Rent-Subsidized Apartments in New York and Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 22, 2011
Jousting with the landlord over rent stabilized apartments is a uniquely NYC type of activity. Violations of the rent-stabilization laws may lead to treble damages, and tenants routinely litigate over the actual v. statutory rent, whether there has been an illegal rent increase, and over violations...

Too Poor for Legal Malpractice?

Posted on February 21, 2011
The decision doesn't tell us in what capacity the attorneys represented the client, but they are now in suit over legal fees, with a legal malpractice counterclaim. As we read this case, we wondered whether the time and effort was worth it. Will there ever be a collection of fees? in Bender, Jenson & Silverstein, LLP v...

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