Law Firm A starts to represent Plaintiff.  At some time afterwards, Law Firm B comes in.  Legal malpractice ensues.  Time goes by.  Can Law Firm A be held responsible for Plaintiff’s losses?  The answer depends on a number of salient issues, and the statute of limitations is one of them.  When does the statute of limitations commence for Law Firm A?

Meredith v Siben & Siben, LLP  2015 NY Slip Op 06120  Decided on July 15, 2015  Appellate Division, Second Department provides some discussion, but no absolute clarity.

“Further, the Supreme Court properly concluded that the plaintiff’s legal malpractice cause of action is time-barred. The defendant met its prima facie burden of demonstrating that the action was commenced more than three years after the alleged malpractice occurred (see Farage v Ehrenberg, 124 AD3d 159, 164; Fleyshman v Suckle & Schlesinger, PLLC, 91 AD3d 591, 592; Rupolo v Fish, 87 AD3d 684, 685). In opposition, the plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether the statute of limitations was tolled by continuous representation (see Farage v Ehrenberg, 124 AD3d at 165; Fleyshman v v Suckle & Schlesinger, PLLC, 91 AD3d at 592). In that respect, the evidence demonstrated that after the plaintiff and her husband retained the defendant law firm to represent them in a personal injury action, the defendant law firm retained the law firm of Bauman & Kunkis, P.C. (hereinafter Bauman & Kunkis), to represent the plaintiff and her husband [*2]in that action, and thereafter had no contact with the plaintiff. All of the work on the case, from filing the pleadings to selecting a jury, was performed by Bauman & Kunkis. Before the case could be tried, it was dismissed based on willful default, and Bauman & Kunkis was substituted with a different law firm, which sought to restore the action. Even if the arrangement between the defendant and Bauman & Kunkis could be equated with joint representation, under the circumstances of this case, the defendant’s representation of the plaintiff would have terminated as of December 1, 2006, the date on which Bauman & Kunkis was substituted. Accordingly, the present legal malpractice cause of action, commenced on or about April 9, 2012, was untimely.”