Plaintiffs hired an attorney in order to purchase a condominium. Unfortunately, the condo was subject to mold and water damage. Razdolskaya v Lyubarsky 2018 NY Slip Op 02817
Decided on April 25, 2018 Appellate Division, Second Department starts out with an analysis of why there is a fraud claim. It ends with an analysis of
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.
Guardianship and Privity
All attorney representations are not equal, and a strong public policy of limiting the volume of legal malpractice cases is highlighted by Siemsen v Mevorach 2018 NY Slip Op 02821 Decided on April 25, 2018 Appellate Division, Second Department. A guardian is not susceptible of a legal malpractice claim for want of privity.
“In 2012,…
The Very Very Rare Partial Summary Judgment in Legal Malpractice
Partial summary judgment for plaintiff is a rare beast in legal malpractice. Judges have to overcome their natural bias against legal malpractice and the facts have to be very strong, or the acts of the attorneys very clearly wrong for partial summary judgment to be granted. Here, in Krigsman v Goldberg 2018 NY Slip Op…
Limits on Privilege in a Judiciary Law 487 Setting
Judiciary Law § 487 relates to deceit by attorneys and allows for treble damages. There are already multiple hurdles for the successful litigant, not the least of which is that the deceit must take place during litigation and within New York state. M.T. Packaging, Inc. v Maidenbaum & Assoc.,
P.L.L.C. 2018 NY Slip Op 30601(U) …
One Toll Permitted; Not Two
Continuous representation tolls the statute of limitations in legal and professional malpractice. There are other more general tolls that apply to all cases, such as infancy and insanity. Here, in Estate of Smulewicz v Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 02722 Decided on April 19, 2018 Appellate Division, First Department plaintiff…
The Rare Legal Malpractice Verdict
While many legal malpractice cases are brought, few, very few proceed to trial and fewer reach verdict. Our research shows only one jury verdict in 2017 and only this bench trial verdict in 2016.
Abramowitz v Lefkowicz & Gottfried, LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 02589 Decided on April 18, 2018 Appellate Division, Second Department is…
No Continuous Representation in a $ 80 Million Legal Malpractice Case
The statute of limitations is a very high barrier to litigation, and to legal malpractice in particular, as there is often a long delay between the malpractice and the result. The statue starts to run with the negligent act, and only continuous representation tolling can save the day for plaintiff. Here, in Davis v Cohen …
An Error, Yes. “But For” Causation? Nope
Here is the difference between legal malpractice and all other forms of litigation, distilled to a single sentence by Justice Kornreich in NextEra Energy, Inc. v Greenberg Traurig, LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 30638(U) April 11, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 652484/2017
“Between August 2002 and December 2010, NextEra was represented in…
Extra Obligations in a Legal Malpractice Case
There are additional hurdles for legal malpractice cases not found in other spheres of the law. Rodriguez v Dean 2018 NY Slip Op 30642(U) April 10, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 805280/16 Judge: Sherry Klein Heitler presents a new wrinkle we have not seen before. There are more than a few legal…
An Unusual Use of the Grace v. Law Rule
There have been only a few uses of the Grace v. Law rule that if a plaintiff has a viable (“likely to succeed”) appeal, it must be taken prior to commencing a legal malpractice case. Florists’ Mut. Ins. Co., Inc. v Behman Hambelton, LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 02556 Decided on April 12, 2018 Appellate…