Legal Malpractice

Judge Recuses Himself in Legal Malpractice Case

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

We reported on this Pennsylvania case last week, having come across several previously unknown words in the decision and article, such as prothonotary.  Here is a follow up article in which the judge recuses himself after the verdict.

"Luzerne County President Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. has recused himself from making post-trial rulings in a $3.4 million legal malpractice case won in February by Robert J. Powell, the prominent attorney with whom Ciavarella has had financial ties.

Ciavarella issued an order Monday directing court administrators to assign another judge to rule on two motions filed by Jeffrey McCarron, the attorney representing the Hazleton law firm that lost to Powell’s clients — a group that includes members of the Slusser family of contractors and construction material suppliers.

In the first motion, filed May 13, McCarron requested a new trial, saying Ciavarella showed an “obvious display of favoritism” toward Powell’s clients. McCarron accused the judge of excluding evidence presented on behalf of his clients, Laputka, Bayless, Ecker & Cohn; making statements in front of the jury that prejudiced the firm’s case; and limiting the testimony of the firm’s witnesses, while granting more leeway to Powell and his witnesses. "

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on June 20, 2008 (boomark / email).