Plaintiff detects what it considers to be deceitful statements made during litigation.  The statements are brought to the attention of the court which declines to sanction the attorney.  May Plaintiff then sue for JL 487?  Gillen v McCarron  2015 NY Slip Op 01781 [126 AD3d 670]  March 4, 2015
Appellate Division, Second Department suggests the answer is no.

“The Supreme Court properly granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint. The complaint is premised on allegations that the defendants violated Judiciary Law § 487 by making false statements during the course of various prior actions and proceedings regarding the occupancy of certain real property. In support of their motion for summary judgment, the defendants established their prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by demonstrating that they did not act with any “intent to deceive” the court or the plaintiff in the previous proceedings (Judiciary Law § 487 [1]; see Cullin v Spiess, 122 AD3d 792, 793 [2014]; Tenore v Kantrowitz, Goldhamer & Graifman, P.C., 121 AD3d 775[2014]; Dupree v Voorhees, 102 AD3d 912 [2013]). Moreover, the defendants established that the plaintiff was aware of the alleged violations of Judiciary Law § 487 when they occurred, and addressed most of them in the course of making applications for sanctions against the defendants in the prior actions and proceedings. Since the plaintiff had a full and fair opportunity to address the alleged violations which were the subject of his sanction applications, and those applications were denied, he is barred by the doctrine of collateral estoppel from relitigating those issues (see Izko Sportswear Co., Inc. v Flaum, 63 AD3d 687, 688 [2009]; Hansen v Werther, 2 AD3d 923, 923 [2003]; Alliance Network, LLC v Sidley Austin LLP, 43 Misc 3d 848, 857 [Sup Ct, NY County 2014]; God’s Battalion of Prayer Pentecostal Church, Inc. v Hollander, 24 Misc 3d 1250[A], 2009 NY Slip Op 51939[U] [Sup Ct, Nassau County 2009], affd 82 AD3d 1156 [2011]). In opposition to the defendants’ prima facie showing, the plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact.

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Andrew Lavoott Bluestone

Andrew Lavoott Bluestone has been an attorney for 40 years, with a career that spans criminal prosecution, civil litigation and appellate litigation. Mr. Bluestone became an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County in 1978, entered private practice in 1984 and in 1989 opened…

Andrew Lavoott Bluestone has been an attorney for 40 years, with a career that spans criminal prosecution, civil litigation and appellate litigation. Mr. Bluestone became an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County in 1978, entered private practice in 1984 and in 1989 opened his private law office and took his first legal malpractice case.

Since 1989, Bluestone has become a leader in the New York Plaintiff’s Legal Malpractice bar, handling a wide array of plaintiff’s legal malpractice cases arising from catastrophic personal injury, contracts, patents, commercial litigation, securities, matrimonial and custody issues, medical malpractice, insurance, product liability, real estate, landlord-tenant, foreclosures and has defended attorneys in a limited number of legal malpractice cases.

Bluestone also took an academic role in field, publishing the New York Attorney Malpractice Report from 2002-2004.  He started the “New York Attorney Malpractice Blog” in 2004, where he has published more than 4500 entries.

Mr. Bluestone has written 38 scholarly peer-reviewed articles concerning legal malpractice, many in the Outside Counsel column of the New York Law Journal. He has appeared as an Expert witness in multiple legal malpractice litigations.

Mr. Bluestone is an adjunct professor of law at St. John’s University College of Law, teaching Legal Malpractice.  Mr. Bluestone has argued legal malpractice cases in the Second Circuit, in the New York State Court of Appeals, each of the four New York Appellate Divisions, in all four of  the U.S. District Courts of New York and in Supreme Courts all over the state.  He has also been admitted pro haec vice in the states of Connecticut, New Jersey and Florida and was formally admitted to the US District Court of Connecticut and to its Bankruptcy Court all for legal malpractice matters. He has been retained by U.S. Trustees in legal malpractice cases from Bankruptcy Courts, and has represented municipalities, insurance companies, hedge funds, communications companies and international manufacturing firms. Mr. Bluestone regularly lectures in CLEs on legal malpractice.

Based upon his professional experience Bluestone was named a Diplomate and was Board Certified by the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys in 2008 in Legal Malpractice. He remains Board Certified.  He was admitted to The Best Lawyers in America from 2012-2019.  He has been featured in Who’s Who in Law since 1993.

In the last years, Mr. Bluestone has been featured for two particularly noteworthy legal malpractice cases.  The first was a settlement of an $11.9 million dollar default legal malpractice case of Yeo v. Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman which was reported in the NYLJ on August 15, 2016. Most recently, Mr. Bluestone obtained a rare plaintiff’s verdict in a legal malpractice case on behalf of the City of White Plains v. Joseph Maria, reported in the NYLJ on February 14, 2017. It was the sole legal malpractice jury verdict in the State of New York for 2017.

Bluestone has been at the forefront of the development of legal malpractice principles and has contributed case law decisions, writing and lecturing which have been recognized by his peers.  He is regularly mentioned in academic writing, and his past cases are often cited in current legal malpractice decisions. He is recognized for his ample writings on Judiciary Law § 487, a 850 year old statute deriving from England which relates to attorney deceit.