Bench and Bar read appellate decisions in order to understand how courts think, how they decide and for guidance in how to present cases.  Panos v Eisen  2018 NY Slip Op 02480  Decided on April 11, 2018  Appellate Division, Second Department could have been instructive, could have explained why Plaintiff”s proofs were lacking, could have illustrated the black-letter law.  The decision gives no explanation at all.

“To meet their initial burden on that branch of their motion which was for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, the defendants were required to “demonstrate, prima facie, either that they did not breach their duty to exercise the ordinary reasonable skill and knowledge commonly possessed by a member of the legal profession or that any breach of that duty did not proximately cause the plaintiff to suffer actual and ascertainable damages” (Montero v Cohen, 104 AD3d 654, 655; see Ferrigno v Jaghab, Jaghab & Jaghab, P.C., 152 AD3d 650, 652; Ragunandan v Donado, 150 AD3d 1289, 1290). The defendants established, prima facie, both the lack of a breach of duty and the lack of proximate cause. Therefore, in order to defeat the defendants’ motion, the plaintiff had “to demonstrate the existence of a triable issue of fact in connection with both matters” (Montero v Cohen, 104 AD3d at 655; see Stukas v Streiter, 83 AD3d 18, 25). Since the plaintiff failed to raise [*2]a triable issue of fact as to whether the defendants’ alleged breach of the duty of care proximately caused him to suffer actual and ascertainable damages, the Supreme Court should have granted that branch of the defendants’ motion which was for summary judgment dismissing the complaint.”

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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.