Musial v Donohue 2024 NY Slip Op 01414 Decided on March 15, 2024 Appellate Division, Fourth Department is a law school example of the territorial effect of jurisdiction and due process. A Texas law firm prosecutes a Texas motor vehicle accident in Texas, and is not subject to a New York legal malpractice case for
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 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.
Judiciary Law 487 Not Well Suited to Attorney Fee Claims
Salus v Berke 2023 NY Slip Op 06183 [221 AD3d 1390] November 30, 2023 Appellate Division, Third Department is a case in which Plaintiff claims that the lawfirm took a fee on a recovery for which there should have been no fee. It made a Judiciary Law 487 claim which was dismissed. This case is…
A Common Personal Injury/Worker’s Compensation Problem
Plaintiffs who are injured on the job have two courses of action. They can claim Worker’s Compensation damages and they can also claim that a third-party is responsible for the injury. While the plaintiff may have to obtain WC permission to settle the third-party claim, and while the WC carrier may be able to claw…
One Last Try
Colucci v Rzepka 2024 NY Slip Op 01232 Decided on March 7, 2024 Appellate Division, Third Department is Plaintiff’s last try to avoid dismissal. The AD simply finds that this appeal (probably from the final judgment) raises no new issues that were not already raised in the appeal from the summary judgment order.
“The underlying…
Settlements, Cash Advances and a Breach of Fiduciary Duty Claim
It is a little difficult to understand the claims in Peterec-Tolino v Ciacci
2024 NY Slip Op 01259 Decided on March 07, 2024 Appellate Division, First Department. The legal representation was in a personal injury setting, with a workers’ compensation component as well. Plaintiff was able to settle two personal injury cases, and got a…
The All Important Accounting Retainer Agreement
Channel Fabrics, Inc. v Skwiersky, Alpert & Bressler LLP 2023 NY Slip Op 06471 [222 AD3d 512] December 19, 2023 Appellate Division, First Department illustrates the varying levels of service that accountants provide, and how the all important accountant’s retainer agreement can limit liability.”
“To state a claim for accountant malpractice, a complaint must allege…
Even If They Settled The Case Without Authorization, It’s Not Enough
Guliyev v Banilov & Assoc., P.C. 2023 NY Slip Op 05493 [221 AD3d 589] November 1, 2023 Appellate Division, Second Department concerns a claim that comes up a lot in potential client inquiries. Clients often say that the attorney “settled” the case without their approval, and forced them into a settlement. The general starting point…
Even Really Negative Characterizations Don’t make a Judiciary Law 487 Case
As Rondeau v Houston 2024 NY Slip Op 00987 Decided on February 27, 2024 Appellate Division, First Department, reminds us, relief in Judiciary Law 487 is not “lightly given.”
“Order and judgment (one paper), Supreme Court, New York County (Charles E. Ramos, J.), entered on or about September 15, 2015, which, to the extent appealed…
Years of Pro-Se Litigation
Sang Seok Na v Pulvers, Pulvers & Thompson, LLP 2024 NY Slip Op 00978
Decided on February 27, 2024 Appellate Division, First Department is the rare case of legal malpractice that has been heard in both the First and Second Departments. It is similarly rare in the number and length of cases associated with the…
Second Try Fails to Convince Panel
Kaufman v Boies Schiller Flexner 2024 NY Slip Op 00804 Decided on February 15, 2024
Appellate Division, First Department is a case where a second bite at the apple fails.
Initially, “The complaint stated a limited cause of action for breach of contract against BSF. The complaint sufficiently alleged that BSF overbilled or billed for…