While this criminal procedure case about the assignment and adjudication of sex offender levels has nothing to do with legal malpractice, an introduction to the dissent sets an interesting illustration of how legal malpractice is really different from almost all other areas of the law. People v Weber 2023 NY Slip Op 03301 Decided on June 15, 2023 Court of Appeals Halligan, J. is an early (if not the first) decision written by the newly appointed Judge Halligan.

The allusion comes in Judge Wilson’s dissent.

“Our adversarial system is premised on the idea that interested parties will bring all the issues they wish to have a court consider, thus allowing courts to make the most informed decision in each case. Counsel can choose to advance a kitchen sink of arguments, carefully choose a more limited set, or carelessly omit a potentially strong argument. Because our courts rely on the diligence and judgment of counsel in the presentation of issues for decision, the consequence for parties whose counsel fails to advance a meritorious claim are high, regardless of whether the failure arose from a clever strategy or a grotesque bungle. Other than when counsel’s negligence is so substantial as to violate the constitutional right of a criminal defendant to effective assistance of counsel, litigants are barred from belatedly advancing claims they had a full and fair opportunity to raise initially. Civil litigants have no such relief under our established precedent (other than by a separate claim for legal malpractice).”