Sun Jackie Huh v Harter, Secrest & Emery, Llp 2018 NY Slip Op 30249(U) February 5, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 160167/2016 Judge: Anthony Cannataro presents a number of challenges to understanding the dispute. The facts are simple enough. Plaintiff goes to an acupuncturist, who basically loses and then breaks a needle,
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.
A Pro-Se Case Withers
Attorneys irritate people all the time, and irritated people act. Dawson v Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. 2018 NY Slip Op 30224(U) February 8, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County
Docket Number: 152112/2017 Judge: Robert D. Kalish is an example of how irritation can lead to litigation which fails.
“Dawson alleges that he resided from August…
A Deposit or a Loan?
Plaintiff’s legal malpractice case rested on whether the attorneys were required to give the client any advice on the purchase of a very expensive apartment. With $ 9.8 Million at stake, and the sponsors changing the “deposit” into a “gift” and a “loan” was there any malpractice?
The Hazy Difference Between Professional Negligence and the Rest of the World
Professionals such as doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers, can be held for tort. Others, almost never. But, what is the difference when they are being sued? Dormitory Auth. of the State of N.Y. v Samson Constr. Co. 2018 NY Slip Op 01115 Decided on February 15, 2018 Court of Appeals DiFiore, Ch. J. with its two…
A Big Mess and Legal Malpractice Too
A decade long real estate litigation which eventually ends in a legal malpractice case with sanction hearings. This particular decision is about whether the judge who presided over the 10 year long real estate case should then have recused himself in the subsequent proceedings.
If Fulton Mkt. Retail Fish Inc. v Todtman, Nachamie, Spizz …
A Nicely Written Explanation of Duplicitive Pleading
Here is a short but complete description of duplicitive pleading in professional negligence cases. It is found in Delphi Healthcare PLLC v Petrella Phillips LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 01012 Decided on February 9, 2018 Appellate Division, Fourth Department.
“Causes of action for negligence, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty are duplicative of…
A Bad Loan, A Gutted Airplane, A Negative Outcome
Professional malpractice, other than for physicians and some medical providers is three years. Even with tolling for continuous representation, that three years can go by very quickly. In Schembre v Saggese 2018 NY Slip Op 30191(U) February 1, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 656328/2016 Judge: Saliann Scarpulla too much time went by…
The Limited Retainer Agreement in Legal Malpractice
In a rather severe reading of a retainer agreement, Justice Freed of Supreme Court, New York County found that the attorneys were not responsible for any investigation into the insurance coverage of their clients. In Matz v Aboulafia Law Firm, LLC 2017 NY Slip Op 32147(U)
October 10, 2017 Supreme Court, New York County …
The Burden on a Motion To Dismiss
First Cent. Sav. Bank v Parentebeard, LLC 2017 NY Slip Op 30974(U) May 10, 2017
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 653680/2014 Judge: Shirley Werner Kornreich discusses the burden a defendant has in a professional negligence case.
“In short, this case concerns the IRS’ s disallowance of $2,514, 143 in net operating losses
(the…
The Statute of Limitations in Professional Malpractice
Accountants and stock-financial advisers are professionals for the purpose of the statute of limitations. For this reason the doctrine of “continuous representation” can apply. Reville v Melvin Ginsberg & Assoc. 2017 NY Slip Op 30821(U) April 20, 2017 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 152167/2015 Judge: Joan M. Kenney gives some explanation on how…