Filing a petition in bankruptcy falls into three well-settled paths, Chapters 7,11 and 13. The rules and the effects of such a filing vary strongly between them. In a legal malpractice case, the debtor loses its capacity to sue and damages which might go to the litigant now go to the trustee. As Nicke v
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.
Court Says: Top Five Reasons This is Not a Judiciary 487 Case
Doscher v Mannatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP 2017 NY Slip Op 01973 Decided on March 16, 2017 Appellate Division, First Department is a case with Judiciary Law § 487 claims. Supreme Court dismissed and the Appellate Division affirmed for these reasons:
- Collateral estoppel: Plaintiff had two chances in the arbitration and both were denied;
- The
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A Very Old Case Ends
Daniel R. Wotman & Assoc., PLLC v Chang 2017 NY Slip Op 02141 Decided on March 23, 2017 Appellate Division, First Department is a 2010 case which has finally reached its final resting place. What started as a fee collection case ends as a fee collection case, with the legal malpractice issues dismissed and affirmed…
Please Explain Plaintiff’s Choices to Me?
Pro-se legal malpractice cases often unearth interesting descriptions of human behavior. Sometimes they are baffling. This is an example.
Checksfield v Berg 2017 NY Slip Op 01924 Decided on March 16, 2017 Appellate Division, Third Department.
“Plaintiff commenced this legal malpractice action in March 2002, alleging that defendant failed in his responsibility to commence an…
No Fatico Hearing, No Malpractice
Ziming Shen v Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Silverberg, P.C. 2017 NY Slip Op 30500(U) March 8, 2017 Supreme Court, County of New York Docket Number: 150808/2016
Judge: Erika M. Edwards is a rare example of a criminal defense attorney legal malpractice case which is not dismissed on the typical grounds that plaintiff cannot show actual…
Taxes, Dementia, Death and a Missed Argument
There are two alternative paths in a legal malpractice statute of limitations argument on when the statute commences. The two choices are at the giving of the challenged advice or when all the elements of a cause of action exist such that a claim may properly be brought. Obviously the second theory may yield later…
Not An Account Stated, But Successful Claim, Nevertheless
Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP v Amira Nature Foods, Ltd. 2017 NY Slip Op 30488(U) March 13, 2017 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 158126/2016
Judge: Carol R. Edmead is a fine example of the attorney fee claim-legal malpractice counterclaim paradigm. This one ended well for the law firm.
“On August 6, 2015,…
This Classic Case Was Dismissed…Why?”
There can be no more classic case in legal malpractice than that of a passenger who is injured in a car accident, whose attorney fails to start the case. Nevertheless, Atiencia v Pinczewski, 2017 NY Slip Op 01839 Decided on March 15, 2017 Appellate Division, Second Department was dismissed in Kings County.
The Appellate…
Did This Pro-Se Plaintiff Go Too Far?
Sometimes, people get a tad too worked up over the small things. Ruffalo v Iannace
2017 NY Slip Op 50296(U) Decided on March 9, 2017 Supreme Court, Westchester County
Marx, J. might be an example.
“Plaintiff moves for an order permitting him to proceed as a poor person and for assignment of counsel in this…
Settlements and Res Judicata
Normally when a legal malpractice case is settled, that’s the end of it. Everyone walks away unhappy, but understanding the the dispute is finally over. Not so in Clerico v Pollack
2017 NY Slip Op 01669 Decided on March 8, 2017 Appellate Division, Second Department.
Plaintiffs hired attorneys to sell a house. The sale…