An unsophisticated client, a personal injury and an attorney who does not investigate the case. These are the facts in Angeles v Aronsky 2013 NY Slip Op 02454 [105 AD3d 486] Appellate Division, First Department .
"On December 7, 2007, at approximately 3:15 p.m., plaintiff entered the front entrance of the apartment building where he lived and, immediately upon reaching the lobby, was hit in the jaw. Although there were no witnesses to the actual attack, a neighbor, Teresa Luna, who was standing outside the building around the time of the incident, saw three men run out the front entrance. Two of the men were holding baseball bats. Luna, who had lived in the building for about five years, did not recognize any of the men. Plaintiff also did not recognize the men, whom he observed briefly before he lost consciousness following the assault.
On the day of the incident, plaintiff admits that the door locked behind him when he left the building around 2:55 p.m. and that he had to unlock it with his key when he returned a short time later. On the side of the building there is a door to the laundry room, which is located in the basement. This door remains unlocked between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. From the laundry room, a person can access the lobby without a key by using the elevator.
Shortly after the attack, plaintiff retained defendant to represent him in a potential personal injury case. According to defendant, an investigator from his office initially interviewed plaintiff at the hospital. Defendant asserts that he later spoke with plaintiff over the phone to review the information plaintiff had given the investigator. Plaintiff told defendant that the front door was locking properly on the day he received his injuries and mentioned no other entrances. Defendant accepted plaintiff’s statements concerning the security of the building, and did not send an investigator to inspect the premises or visit the premises himself. Also, he did not interview the superintendent."
The case settled, but plaintiff says that he was compelled to settle at a low value. "A client is not barred from a legal malpractice action where there is a signed "settlement of the underlying action, if it is alleged that the settlement of the action was effectively compelled by the mistakes of counsel" (Garnett v Fox, Horan & Camerini, LLP, 82 AD3d 435, 435 [1st Dept 2011] [internal quotation marks omitted], quoting Bernstein v Oppenheim & Co., 160 AD2d 428, 430 [1st Dept 1990])."
"In this specific case, given plaintiff’s lack of sophistication and his limited education, defendant’s statement that he never conducted any investigation, except for speaking to plaintiff for a very limited time, raises a question of fact as to whether defendant adequately informed himself about the facts of the case before he conveyed the settlement offer. Furthermore, defendant says he told plaintiff, when he conveyed the settlement offer, that it was a "difficult liability case." It is difficult to understand, on the record before us, how he made that assessment without going to the building, or speaking to the superintendent. Because the evidence on a defendant’s summary judgment motion must be viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff (Branham v Loews Orpheum Cinemas, Inc., 8 NY3d 931 [2007]), we find there are questions of fact as to whether the attorney failed to exercise the ordinary reasonable skill appropriate under the circumstances."