Jury verdicts in the Legal Malpractice field are rare.  Most cases are settled, and the balance are disposed of in motion practice.  We are proud to share a New York Law Journal news article with you about this Legal Malpractice Jury Verdict from Supreme Court, Westchester County.

“A jury awarded nearly $400,000 to a Westchester County municipality that claimed its counsel for a group of civil rights cases incorrectly advised that the city would not have to pay the plaintiffs’ legal fees.

In 2004, White Plains police officers arrested three people after they asked why their friend was getting arrested. After the three were cleared of resisting arrest and obstruction charges, they sued the city in federal court, alleging false arrest and malicious prosecution

Joseph Maria, a White Plains lawyer representing the city, offered $10,000 to each plaintiff to settle the case. But the city alleged Maria made a “crucial mistake” by failing to state that the award was intended to cover all costs, including attorney fees.

The plaintiffs accepted, and Southern District Judge Robert Patterson awarded nearly $291,000 in attorney fees. After the city lost its appeal in 2012, Patterson awarded the plaintiffs’ lawyers an additional $106,000 in fees.

In 2014, the city of White Plains sued Maria and his firm, Joseph A. Maria PC. Westchester County Judge David Everett granted White Plains’ partial motion for summary judgment that the defendants were negligent when they departed from the “good and accepted” practice of law.

From there, White Plains moved to prove the “case within the case,” or that it would have won the underlying case if not for Maria’s negligence, and a jury trial was held earlier this month before Westchester state Supreme Justice Lewis Lubell.

Andrew Lavoott Bluestone, who represented the city of White Plains, said the jury found the officers would have had probable cause to arrest the three plaintiffs.

Neither Maria nor Steven Coploff, of counsel to Steinberg & Cavaliere and Maria’s attorney in the malpractice action, returned calls requesting comment.

 

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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.