Savitt v Greenberg Traurig, LLP    2015 NY Slip Op 02003 [126 AD3d 506]  March 12, 2015
Appellate Division, First Department is an example of the general way in which the Appellate Division and the various Supreme Courts treat Judiciary Law §487 claims,  which are not “lightly given.”  A brisk dismissal with the reason that the deceit described is not strong enough.

“The motion court properly dismissed the Judiciary Law § 487 claims since the complaint “fails to show either a deceit that reaches the level of egregious conduct or a chronic and extreme pattern of behavior on the part of” the defendant attorneys (see Wailes v Tel Networks USA, LLC, 116 AD3d 625, 625-626 [1st Dept 2014]; Herschman v Kern, Augustine, Conroy & Schoppman, 113 AD3d 520 [1st Dept 2014]). The complaint alleges only bare legal conclusions that the defendant attorneys, who jointly represented plaintiffs and defendants Janis and Designs in a prior lawsuit, acted with the requisite intent to deceive. Specifically, there are no factual allegations from which to infer that the attorneys knew that their advice to plaintiffs that there were no meritorious claims they could have asserted against Janis and Designs in the prior lawsuit, was false, and thus, that they knowingly and intentionally misled plaintiffs into releasing Janis and Designs from all claims in the course of settling that lawsuit (Callaghan v Goldsweig, 7 AD3d 361, 362 [1st Dept 2004]).”