In the distant past, there were no litigation funding companies. Slowly, they came into existence and even more slowly started to displace the strongly held belief that personal injury lawyers were required to bank the litigation costs of their clients. As some of the largest PI firms in NYS started to engage in litigation lending/funding
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.
Privity in the Architect Professional Negligence Setting
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on
Posted in Legal Malpractice Cases
It’s rare to convince a judge that an earlier decision was simply wrong. Here, in Tutor Perini Bldg. Corp. v Port Auth. of N.Y. & N.J. 2020 NY Slip Op 30045(U) January 6, 2020 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 156211/2018 Judge Andrea Masley took a second look at the law and changed her…
The Scope of Discovery
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on
Posted in Uncategorized
QUEENS: When Plaintiff is searching for important documents in a litigation, may subpoenas be served? What exactly is the scope of discovery of bank accounts and other potentially private information?
45-34 Pearson St. LIC, LLC v Ohana 2019 NY Slip Op 33294(U) September 25, 2019 Supreme Court, Queens County Docket Number: 706833/2016
Judge: Marguerite A.…
Was He A Partner Or Not?
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on
Posted in Legal Malpractice Cases
The question of identity and partnership lead to a question of deceit. If an attorney is a partner may he release a client. If he is not a partner is it a violation of Judiciary Law § 487 to give the release? For now, the question remains in limbo.
Dismissals and Legal Malpractice
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on
Posted in Legal Malpractice Cases
How the case was dismissed becomes the most important issue in Finamore v David Ullman, P.C. 2020 NY Slip Op 00105 Decided on January 8, 2020 Appellate Division, Second Department .
“In an action to recover damages for legal malpractice, the plaintiff, Sandro Finamore, in his capacity as executor of the estate of Ione Finamore,…
When May An Attorney Be Responsible in Simple Negligence?
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on
Posted in Legal Malpractice Cases
Some courts hold that any claim against a “learned professional” must be analyzed via the lens of malpractice, legal, medical or professional. This implies certain statutes of limitation, certain obligations of a professional and other differences between the professional and the lay person. Here, in Sutherland v Fitzpatrick 2020 NY Slip Op 30029(U) January 2,…
The Ever Important “But For” Problem in Legal Malpractice
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on
Posted in Legal Malpractice Cases
Ramos v Goldberg, Scudieri & Lindenberg, P.C. 2020 NY Slip Op 30028(U) January 6, 2020 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 160837/2016 Judge: Anthony Cannataro illustrates how courts review the materials and predict how the case would have come out “but for” the mistakes of the attorneys. These but for examinations are very…
Does Anyone Know About CPLR 203(d)?
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on
Posted in Legal Malpractice Cases
CPLR 203(d) is an ill-understood, mysterious saving statute that allows untimely counter-claims to be brought under certain circumstances. It can be a saving statute for wildly out of statute counterclaims and acts as an offset to a claim. The requirements are set forth in a recent opinion by Judge Schecter in Supreme Court, New York…
When Does Attorney Conduct Extend the Statute of Limitations?
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on
Posted in Legal Malpractice Cases
An attorney acts for the client. More than three years passes from those acts, and the client wants to sue. How does the statute of limitations apply, what acts by the attorney might extend the statute, and how does “fraud” play into the analysis?
Capone v LDH Mgt. Holdings LLC 2020 NY Slip Op 30013(U) …
The Borrowing Statute and the Legal Malpractice Bundle
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on
Posted in Legal Malpractice Cases
Legal malpractice claims often consist of a specific claim of malpractice, a breach of fiduciary duty and a breach of contract. In a setting (say, Connecticut and New York) where the acts occur in Connecticut and the attorney is sued in New York, the borrowing statute (CPLR 202) comes into play. In Capone v LDH …