Almost unheard of, Plaintiff was granted summary judgment on liability in this legal malpractice case.

Reem Contr. v Altschul & Altschul  2020 NY Slip Op 32301(U)  July 13, 2020  Supreme Court, New York County  Docket Number: 104202/2011  Judge: Kelly A. O’Neill Levy is the one-in-a-million where Plaintiff obtains a summary judgment order in a legal malpractice setting.

“”A legal malpractice claim requires a showing that the attorney was negligent, that her negligence proximately caused the loss in question, and that the pla,intiffs sustained actual
damages … To prevail on a summary judgment motion, the attorney must show that she exercised an “ordinary (degree of) skill and knowledge.” Mah v. 40-44 West J 20th St. Associates, LLC, 65 Misc3d l2l5(A) (1st Dep’t 2019) (citing Bishop v. Maurer, 33 AD3d 497, 498 [!st Dept. 2006], affd 9 NY3d 910 [2007]; Bakcheva v. Law Offs. q{Stein & Assoc, 169 AD3d 624, 625 [2d Dept. 20 J 9]). “While the issue of whether certain conduct constitutes legal malpractice is generally a factual detennination to be made by the jury. a plaintiff will be entitled to summary judgment in a case where there is no conflict at all in the evidence. the defendant’s conduct fell below any permissible standard of due care. and the plaintiffs conduct was not really involved.” Selletli v Liotti. 22 A.D.3d 739 (2d Dep’t 2005).

“Expert testimony is normally needed to establish that the attorney failed to exercise the ordinary reasonable skill and knowledge commonly possessed by a member of the legal profession.·· Northrop v. Thorsen, 46 A.D.3d 780 (2d Dep’l 2011). To this end. Plaintiffs have submitted a signed expert report from Bennett J. Wassennan, Esq. which concludes in detail that Defendants were negligent and that there is a direct causal link between Defendants’ negligence and actual damages that Plaintiff incurred”

” This case presents an extraordinary situation where this Court can appreciate how Plaintiffs’ expert came to the conclusion that Defendants’ “failure to retain a liability expert in a
timely fashion, failure to secure a proper expert report in a timely fashion, and failure to properly oppose the underlying plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment” was “a substantial causative factor” in a determination ofliability that was potentially avoidable where, as here, Defendants’ failure to retain a liability expert in a timely fashion, failure to secure an expert report in a timely fashion, and failure to oppose plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment are a substantial causative factor in determining liability.

Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment as to liability is granted. ”

 

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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.