Legal malpractice is the child of medical malpractice. It seems that attorneys (long, long ago) helped forge the concept of professional responsibility for poor medical care, well before the same analysis was applied to legal care. Long ago the quality of medical care varied widely between communities, and the “locality rule” was applied, so that
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 Tragedy and Legal Malpractice Follows
The facts behind Financial Servs. Veh. Trust v Saad 2016 NY Slip Op 01637 Decided on March 9, 2016 Appellate Division, Second Department are tragic. Saad strikes two pedestrians and kills both. He had leased a car, and since this was one of the few motor vehicle accidents that involved “grave injury” the commercial lessor…
A Complex Case Moves on to Discovery
All too often in legal malpractice cases Courts seem willing, even eager, to dismiss at the CPLR 3211 stage. We think, based upon anecdotal evidence, that the percentage of legal malpractice cases dismissed on this motion exceeds that of all other types of cases. Leading Ins. Group Ins. Co., Ltd. v Friedman LLP 2016 NY…
We Broke It…Now You Fix It
U Joon Sung v Park 2016 NY Slip Op 30354(U) February 23, 2016 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 159279/15 Judge: Kathryn E. Freed is typical of the chameleon-like conduct of defendants in a legal malpractice case. Without a pause, they take on the coloration and the defenses of the original tortfeasor; in this…
Tossed In Judiciary Law 487 Claim Quickly Thrown Out
Is Judiciary Law § 487 a favorite flavor in litigation right now? It sometimes seems that with its general acceptance under Amalfitano some people throw it in to an otherwise unremarkable case, somewhat willy-nilly. Shi v Alexandratos is an example. 2016 NY Slip Op 01560 Decided on March 3, 2016 Appellate Division, First Department. Here,…
No Judiciary Law 487 Violation, But a Whole Lot of Foolishness
We deal in this area every day, but still are surprised by how attorneys deal with each other, and the penalties and sanctions they open themselves up to in what appears in hindsight to be merely foolish litigation. Here in Neroni v Follender 2016 NY Slip Op 01527 Decided on March 3, 2016
Appellate Division,…
Catastrophic Injury and Tort Liability in Architect Negligence
We sometimes stray into professional liability other than that of legal malpractice, and today we look at Dormitory Auth. of the State of N.Y. v Samson Constr. Co. 2016 NY Slip Op 01546
Decided on March 3, 2016 Appellate Division, First Department. The City of New York decided to build a state-of-the-art forensic lab for…
Sometimes the Critics are Right, and the Legal Malpractice Case is Unwarranted
Defense attorneys in legal malpractice cases typically raise several arguments against plaintiff. One is that plaintiff had multiple attorneys which they posit indicates lack of merit or rigor in the case. Another argument is that plaintiff is just monday-morning-quarterbacking, or whatever simile they choose. Sadly, sometimes they are correct, and Hyman v Schwartz 2016 NY…
Litigate in Haste, Repent at Leisure
As an example of suing too fast, Chapman v Faustin 2016 NY Slip Op 30321(U) February 23, 2016 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 157736/15 Judge: Cynthia S. Kern stands out. The basics are that Plaintiff hired defendant to be his accountant and run the shop. Defendant allowed a 32 acre parcel of land…
Sure, It Was A Mistake…But So What?
“But for” proximate cause is the black hole of legal malpractice and in a way, of all litigation. The question of whether a mistakes really makes a difference is central to the entire legal system. Did you look away from the road for a second? Yes. Did it make a difference? Did you overstate the…