Whether the issue arises in an insurance coverage case for personal injury or in a legal malpractice coverage case, notice to the carrier is all important, and the failure to notify can gut coverage. Cohen Bros. Realty Corp. v RLI Ins. Co. 2016 NY Slip Op 31493(U) August 3, 2016 Supreme Court, New York County
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.
Positioning the Legal Malpractice Case
Sometimes a legal malpractice case is brought and an answer is filed, and sometimes an attorney fee claim is made and a legal malpractice counterclaim is filed. Litigants have varying feelings on whether playing defense puts them at a disadvantage. Here in Bleakley Platt & Schmidt, LLP v Barbera 2016 NY Slip Op 00919…
Tolling the Statute of Limitations
For almost every professional endeavor, save medicine, the statute of limitations is 3 years. For medicine because of “tort reform” intervention, it is 2.5 years. But the mere length from the date of the mistake is only the first part of the calculation. The statute of limitations is tolled while continuing representation goes on.
It’s said to be a “Modification” But …Wow!
Bison Capital Corp. v Hunton & Williams LLP 2016 NY Slip Op 31467(U) July 28, 2016
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 153793/15 Judge: Saliann Scarpulla starts out as a $ 116 Million legal malpractice case, brought by two uber law firms in the NY area, and ends as a breach of contract for…
Guessing at What A Court Might Do in Legal Malpractice
In all legal malpractice cases one compares the hypothetical better outcome to that of the actual. Where there is a significant difference, it can be said that there is a proximately caused outcome. That, however, is different from the “but for” causation which is unique to legal malpractice. Here, one must show that there is…
Was It Yearly Work or Monthly Work?
In this case, for the statute of limitations it makes a great deal of difference whether the work being performed by professionals (accountants) was by the month or by the tax year. Calculation of the statute of limitations is strongly affected by this determination.
Lobel Chem. Corp. v Petitto 2016 NY Slip Op 30273(U) February…
Mistakes Happen…
Clients hired attorneys to set up and oversee a trust. The funding for the trust was from life insurance policies. The attorneys were tasked with making sure the insurance policies stayed in effect. Then…
Ianiro v Bachman 2015 NY Slip Op 06709 [131 AD3d 925] September 2, 2015 Appellate Division, Second Department tells us that…
A Small Case III
Sometimes short and concisely written opinions contain much information. Today, we cconclude with Jefferson Apts., Inc. v Mauceri 2016 NY Slip Op 26230 Decided on July 25, 2016 Supreme Court, Queens County Ritholtz, J. are simple. An accounting firm is hired to oversee the basic accounting needs of a corporation. Lots of money is missing. …
A Small Case II
Sometimes short and concisely written opinions contain much information. Today, we continue with Jefferson Apts., Inc. v Mauceri 2016 NY Slip Op 26230 Decided on July 25, 2016 Supreme Court, Queens County Ritholtz, J. are simple. An accounting firm is hired to oversee the basic accounting needs of a corporation. Lots of money is missing. …
A Small Case Bears Many Lessons
Sometimes short and concisely written opinions contain much information. The basics of Jefferson Apts., Inc. v Mauceri 2016 NY Slip Op 26230 Decided on July 25, 2016 Supreme Court, Queens County Ritholtz, J. are simple. An accounting firm is hired to oversee the basic accounting needs of a corporation. Lots of money is missing. It…