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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

Taking on Another's Legal Fees

Posted on March 10, 2010
The first cousin to Legal Malpractice is the eternal question of legal fees. Who pays them? From whom may they be obtained? How does one calculate them? What is reasonable? Under which situations might an attorney forfeit them? Might one law firm be responsible to another when it says that it will cover the legal fees of a client? DePetris & Bachrach, LLP v...

The Pleading Goes on in the Canestoga Legal Malpractice Case

Posted on March 09, 2010
We recently reported on this Case in SDNY, captioned STONEWELL CORP., and RICHARD GLADSTONE, Plaintiffs, -against- CONESTOGA TITLE INSURANCE CO., WILLIAM KOLSHORN, and JERSEYSEARCH TITLE SERVICES, INC., Defendants. - as consolidated with - CONESTOGA TITLE INSURANCE CO...

A Fairly Rare Case On Appeal in Legal Malpractice

Posted on March 08, 2010
It's fairly rare for defendant-attorney to move for summary judgment in a legal malpractice case, lose, and then lose at appeal. Why do defendants move for summary judgment ? Beyond the obvious answer that it is a shot that they can take without any downside, the general reason is that defendant believes that it can win in one of two areas...

Legal Malpractice, Medical Malpractice and an Apology

Posted on March 05, 2010
Legal Malpractice is family to its cousin, Medical Malpractice. In either situation, a person has put faith in a professional, asking that a threatening problem be solved. It matters little to the client/patient whether the situation is an operation or a trial...

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Fees Between Attorneys and the Second Circuit

Posted on March 04, 2010
Infant Plaintiff is injured in a paper shredder, and goes to attorney 1. Attorney 1, who wisely understands that he lacks the special expertise to handle the case correctly in US District Court hands case off to Attorney 2. After a while attorney 2 speaks to a law firm even more experienced, and they together bring the case to an almost $1 million settlement...

Resignation and the End of the Line in Legal Malpractice

Posted on March 03, 2010
Some states have mandatory legal malpractice insurance, but New York does not. Result? Plaintiffs who have suffered real damages at the hands of uninsured attorneys pursue them, and cannot collect their actual damages from the attorneys. Here is one sad example...

Complex Cases in Legal Malpractice

Posted on March 02, 2010
Legal malpractice seems to exist across the board everywhere an attorney interacts with a client. Like the New Yorker cartoon showing a 5 year old who has dropped an ice cream cone, with an adult standing above and asking "Do you need an attorney?" we see legal malpractice cases stitched in all settings...

It's Not When you Learn about it in Legal Malpractice

Posted on March 01, 2010
We are reminded yet again that the statute of limitations starts to run in legal malpractice on the day that the mistake is made. It's not the day that you realize that a mistake was made. This issue arises mostly in transactional representations, such as the lease in this case...

The Missing Comma, Fraud and Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 26, 2010
In Seaview Mezzanine Fund, LP v. LoPresti, 2010 NY Slip Op 30350(U), decided by Justice York on February 18, 2010, in New York County, we see a well written explanation of several basic principals. In this case a review of releases, of contract interpretation and the difference between a CPLR 3211(a)(7) and a CPLR 3211(a)(1) motion...

More Examples of Breach of Fiduciary Duty and Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 25, 2010
This week brings a decision in SHEEHY,v. NEW CENTURY MORTGAGE CORP., ET AL., No. 08-CV-377 (JFB) (MLO);UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK;2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15201, We have noted a trend in legal malpractice cases involving allegaions of breach of fiduciary duty...

What Did it Take for a Second Look at a Legal Malpractice Case?

Posted on February 24, 2010
It's a rare phenominom, but in this case the Second Department took another look at a case, and significantly changed its decision regarding legal malpractice. in Uzzle v Nunzie Ct. Homeowners Assn., Inc. ;2010 NY Slip Op 01476 ;Decided on February 16, 2010 ;Appellate Division, Second Department under 2008 NY Slip Op 7905, the AD wrote:"Given the limited scope of the plaintiff's notice of appeal, the issue of whether the Supreme Court erred in dismissing the causes of action aserted against the defendant John C...

Statute of Limitations in Legal Malpractice and Real Estate Contracts

Posted on February 23, 2010
In Yakubov v Borukhov we see a common fact pattern. It consists of an early event followed by litigation, bad outcome, and a look back, in legal malpractice, at the original attorney from years before. Here the sequence is: Real estate contract which was to allow plaintiff to subdivide property...

Trip & Fall Cases and Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 22, 2010
How does an attorney prove negligence in a trip & fall case? Failures in such proof provide a steady steam of legal malpractice inquiies, and fuel much plaintiff suspicion that the law is either not fair, or that their attorney could have done a better job...

Charging and Retaining Liens in Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 19, 2010
A common law retaining lien entitles the outgoing attorney to retain all papers, securities, or money belonging to the client that came into the attorney's possession in the course of representation, as security for payment of attorney's fees. Arising from Judiciary Law 475, it is enforceable only by retention of the items themselves and is lost if the file or documents are no longer in the attorney's possession...

Legal Malpractice in Union Settings

Posted on February 18, 2010
Unions provide attorneys and legal coverage for their members. Sometimes employers provide attorneys for their employees. Do they have legal malpractice responsibility to the member-employee ? Does the attorney have a legal malpractice responsibility to the client, in the absence of privity? Some answers are set forth in NADA, -against- 1199 SEIU HEALTH CARE EMPLOYEES UNION, 09 Civ...

Trusts and Releases in Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 17, 2010
Once, the Corning glass works were a behemoth in upstate New York. World class, cutting edge [no pun], and hugely successful, ownership of Corning stock was both a good investment and an emblem of upstate NY industriousness. This case, Matter of Hsbc Bank U...

One Problem after Another in Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 16, 2010
When one starts to read a case, and the plaintiff is pro-se, look out for common mistakes within. In Williams v Bushman ;2010 NY Slip Op 00840 ;Decided on February 2, 2010 ;Appellate Division, Second Department we see at least two. Here is the story line: "The plaintiff, Nathaniel N...

Fee Arbitration and Counter-Claims for Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 12, 2010
Courts are closed today and on Monday for the President's weekend. Nevertheless, today we present an Appellate Term case on the interplay of fee dispute arbitration and legal malpractice. Calabro & Assoc., P.C. v Katz ;2010 NY Slip Op 50192(U) ;Decided on February 9, 2010 ; Appellate Term, First Department ...

Legal Malpractice and the Use of a Disbarred Attorney

Posted on February 11, 2010
Actually we're a little shocked at the facts of this matrimonial action involving Thomas Liotti. in Coccia v Liotti ;2010 NY Slip Op 00917 ; Decided on February 9, 2010 ; Appellate Division, Second Department we see some very unusual language from the Appellate Division...

Liability of Subsequent Attorneys in Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 10, 2010
Macaluso v Pollack , 2010 NYSlipOp 30276(U) , Justice Diamond, Nassau County presents an interesting story of how a case can get dismissed. Beyond the storyline, the case presents analysis of liability of predecessor/subsequent attorneys, how the dissolution of a partnership affects legal malpractice litigation, what subsequent attorneys can accomplish in the Second Circuit, and potential liability of associate attorneys...

Employment Discrimination and Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 09, 2010
Carboni v Ginsberg ; 02/02/2010 2010 NYSlipOp 30256(U) Maltese, J. is an illustration of how a potential legal malpractice case underlays almost all activity within the realm of attorney representation, which is to say, everything. Here, the question is whether plaintiff lost his employment in a wrongful manner, and after that determination, whether he has sued the attorneys within the appropriate statute of limitations time...

No Right to Arbitrate Fee Dispute Despite Retainer Language

Posted on February 08, 2010
In Edelman v Poster ; 2010 NY Slip Op 00788 ; Decided on February 4, 2010 ; Appellate Division, First Department we see a situation in which a matrimonial retainer agreement boldly stated a right to arbitrate, yet the Appellate Division, First Department, determined that client has no right to arbitrate...

Escrow and Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 05, 2010
In this Case Egnotovich v. Katten Muchin Zavis & Roseman LLP, 604101/06 , Decided January 23, 2008 ,Justice Bernard J. Fried NEW YORK COUNTY ,Supreme Court Plaintiffs joined a vacation club in which they each deposited $ 400,000, and the group was to purchase or lease apartments or houses in prime vacatiion spots...

The Need for an Expert in Legal Malpractice Litigation

Posted on February 04, 2010
There are a few situations in legal malpractice where an expert is not needed for plaintiff. An expert is needed, in general, when the subject matter is unknown or too complicated for lay jurors to understand or determine, and they require explanation by a person who is professionally or educationally acquainted with the specialized field...

A Bold Search for the Usual Suspects i Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 03, 2010
We can't tell an awful lot of the facts of the underlying case from the Second Department decision in Nelson v Roth 2010 NY Slip Op 00658 Decided on January 26, 2010 Appellate Division, Second Department but we do see the ironic clash of two well known Legal Malpractice defense firms, one acting as a plaintiff's attorney while at the same time defending an attorney in this case...

Claims, Counterclaims and Getting the File in Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 02, 2010
Client hires law firm, law firm is said to have made mistakes, law firm is said to have made corrective motions based upon its own mistakes, and then charged client. Law firm sues client, and client answers without filing a counterclaim. Its not evident from the decision but we guess that client then hired an attorney who seeks to change an affirmative defense to a counterclaim for legal malpractice...

A Repellant Case, Once in Legal Malpractice

Posted on February 01, 2010
Victoria Kremen suffered unnecessary, and negligent bilateral mastectomy. It is said that removal of secondary sexual characteristics is akin to removal of ones central identity. Ms. Kremen was subjected to a horrible misdiagnosis, with subsequent surgery...

Judgement and Hindsight in Legal Malpractice Cases

Posted on January 29, 2010
Professional Judgment is what we hire attorneys for, and what we expect from them. Litigants are generally unable to proceed through difficult thickets of choice of courts, choice of strategy, choice of questions to ask at a trial. Nevertheless, we expect that our attorney will exercise correct and satisfactory professional judgment...

Two Lessons from a Reality - Legal Malpractice Case

Posted on January 28, 2010
Complex multi-state, multi-district, criminal-civil high stakes litigation...really, it can only end in a legal malpractice case. Here, in Stonewell Corp. v. Conestoga Title Ins. Co., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1107 [2004 cv 9867] a decision by Judge Kimba Woods lays out just how complex a case can get...

Settlements and Subsequent Legal Malpractice

Posted on January 27, 2010
We're proud to point today to the article "Settlements and Subsequent Legal Malpractice" in today's New York Law Journal. One interesting wrinkle on the legal malpractice scene is how settlements, and the rote allocutions at settlement affect legal malpractice...

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