Judiciary Law § 487 is an ancient part of the common law. It was enacted only 30 years after the Magna Carta. That’s as old as it gets in Anglo-American law. It is sparsely uphold and sparingly applied. Jean v. Chinitz 2018 NY Slip Op 05521 Decided on July 26, 2018 Appellate Division, First Department
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.
The Statute of Limitations is Looming…But It Still May Be Too Early!
What does one do when there is a potential legal malpractice claim against a former attorney, yet the underlying case has not yet been dismissed, though it is mortally wounded? Does one wait for the inevitable end of the case and then claim that it is not (now) too late to sue the former attorney? …
One of the Oldest and Oddest Questions in Legal Malpractice
Tort or Contract? Legal malpractice is really neither of the two bi-polar options; it is a melding of both. Privity of contact is required in a tort setting. Statutes of limitation for contract are calculated on a tort scale. The list goes on and on.
Willig v Danzig, Fishman & Decea 2018 NY Slip Op…
Is There Any Vitality to Matrimonial Legal Malpractice?
One unique aspect of matrimonial litigation is that a very large percentage of the cases are settled in court, typically on the day of trial. This leads to in court settlement allocutions. Settlement in court with a time deadline looming leads to hastily constructed settlement agreements. While millions of dollars might be at stake, the…
Much Is Whittled Away From This Matrimonial Legal Malpractice Case
Gross v Aronson, Mayefsky & Sloan, LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 31590(U) July 10, 2018
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 153274/2017 Judge: Anthony Cannataro demonstrates how hard it is to link up bad outcomes with a cognizable legal malpractice claim. It’s a matrimonial case in which the father guaranteed legal fee payments for…
This Story Goes From Bad To Much Much Worse
A medical malpractice case is almost always a tragedy. Someone has been unnecessarily hurt, someone has unnecessarily died. How can it get worse?
Marinelli v Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Cannavo, P.C. 2018 NY Slip Op 31610(U)
July 10, 2018 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: 519958/2016 Judge: Marsha L. Steinhardt is one example of…
A Second Pro-Se Bite Yields Nothing Tasty
Plaintiff hired attorney to represent him in a mediation with Morgan Stanley in 2014. Plaintiff settled on a $ 267K package, and then several years later sued his attorney. Reches v Sack & Sack, LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 31643(U) June 28, 2018 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: 511057/2017 Judge: Dawn M. Jimenez-Salta…
Pro-Se Litigation Ends in an Appellate Brawl
Some of the most unusual and unstable law arises from chance litigation between pro-se plaintiffs and professional defendants. Borges v Placeres 2018 NY Slip Op 28224 Decided on June 27, 2018 Civil Court Of The City Of New York, New York County Ramseur, J. is a wonderful example. Immigration plaintiff sues immigration attorney for…
It’s Really Hard to Undo a Divorce Settlement
It is even harder to bring a successful legal malpractice case against the divorce attorney when the matter was settled. Holtzman v Griffith 2018 NY Slip Op 04540 Decided on June 20, 2018
Appellate Division, Second Department, aside from its lesson on “account stated” tells us that a legal malpractice claim from a settled divorce…
The Very Strong Account Stated Doctrine
Holtzman v Griffith 2018 NY Slip Op 04540 Decided on June 20, 2018 Appellate Division, Second Department illustrates the almost overpowering quality of the “account stated” doctrine, in which the failure to object (in writing) to bills from attorneys (or others) can serve as a conclusion that the recipient has accepted the bills without objection…