The statute of limitations for legal malpractice is three years under CPLR 214(6).  That statute may be tolled during the period of continuous representation.  Continuous representation, for social policy reasons, tolls the running of the statute so that a client is not required to sue the attorney while the representation continues on, allowing for the attorney to perhaps fix the mistake.  There must be a continuing relationship of trust and confidence between the client and the attorney with a common understanding that more work is expected in the case.

So, when does the continuing representation end?  Often, on the day that  a substitution and change of counsel is filed.  Sometimes the date of the end of the relationship is not so clear. O.K. Petroleum Intl., Ltd. v Palmieri & Castiglione, LLP  2016 NY Slip Op 00945  Decided on February 10, 2016  Appellate Division, Second Department is a case where plaintiff missed the mark by three days.  Just as in Aaron v. Roemerfiling of the consent to change attorney (in Aaron issuing of the order granting withdrawal) was not the operative date.  That date was 9 days earlier.

“Contrary to the plaintiffs’ contentions, the Supreme Court properly granted that branch of the defendant’s motion which was for summary judgment dismissing the cause of action to recover damages for legal malpractice as untimely (see Farage v Ehrenberg, 124 AD3d 159, 164; Aseel v Jonathan E. Kroll & Assoc., PLLC, 106 AD3d 1037, 1038; Rupolo v Fish, 87 AD3d 684, 685; Piliero v Adler & Stavros, 282 AD2d 511, 512). The defendant demonstrated that the alleged legal malpractice occurred more than three years before this action was commenced on June 11, 2012, through evidence showing that the plaintiffs had substituted counsel by June 3, 2009 (see CPLR 214[6]; Rupolo v Fish, 87 AD3d at 685). In opposition, the plaintiffs failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether the statute of limitations was tolled by the continuous representation doctrine until the formal notice of substitution was executed on June 12, 2009 (see Farage v Ehrenberg, 124 AD3d at 166; Rupolo v Fish,87 AD3d at 685).

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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.