All too frequently a person is injured at work, retains an attorney, and a problem arises several years later.  Either there is a “consent” problem with the WC carrier, or there is a total failure to file a WC claim.  Sometimes, as in Encalada v McCarthy, Chachanover & Rosado, LLP  2018 NY Slip Op 02434  Decided on April 10, 2018  Appellate Division, First Department it is the opposite.  Here, the WC claim was brought, but the PI case was not.  How does it resolve?

“Plaintiff was injured in an accident while working as an asbestos remover on March 31, 2001. Within a few days thereof, he reached out to defendant law firm for legal assistance. The parties dispute whether defendant law firm told plaintiff that it would represent him in all claims related to the accident. Defendant served as legal counsel for plaintiff in the related workers’ compensation action until December 2004, when it withdrew as counsel. On November 27, 2007, plaintiff brought a legal malpractice action against defendant for failing to file a notice of claim within 30 days of the accident and failing to bring a personal injury lawsuit against municipal entities within 1 year and 90 days of the accident.

Defendant as movant met its prima facie burden on summary judgment by showing that plaintiff’s legal malpractice case was untimely as it was not commenced within three years of the date of accrual of each legal malpractice claim (see CPLR 214[6]).

However, plaintiff raised a triable issue of fact with respect to whether the three-year statute of limitations was tolled under the continuous representation doctrine. Under the continuous representation doctrine, a person seeking professional assistance is placed in a difficult position if required to sue his or her attorney while the attorney continues to represent them on a particular legal matter (Shumsky v Eisenstein, 96 NY2d 164, 167-168 [2001]). Accordingly, the doctrine tolls the running of the statute of limitations on malpractice claims until the ongoing representation is completed (id.). However, the application of this doctrine is limited “to the course of representation concerning a specific legal matter,” and is not applicable to the client’s “continuing general relationship with a lawyer … involving only routine contact for miscellaneous legal representation … unrelated to the matter upon which the allegations of malpractice are predicated” (id. at 168). The record presents an issue of fact as to whether defendant continuously represented plaintiff in connection with a personal injury claim based on the accident, such as to toll the statute of limitations during that time (see Glamm v Allen, 57 NY2d 87, 94 [1982]; Waggoner v Caruso, 68 AD3d 1, 6-7 [1st Dept 2009]).

Finally, defendant’s argument regarding the alleged contradiction in plaintiff’s deposition testimony and affidavit is unavailing. Whether plaintiff’s testimony about the initial conversation can support his malpractice claim is ultimately a credibility issue for the fact finder and not appropriate for resolution on summary judgment (see Ferrante v American Lung Assn., 90 NY2d 623, 631 [1997]; Glick & Dolleck v Tri-Pac Export Corp., 22 NY2d 439, 441 [1968]).”

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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.