Milgram Thomajan & Lee, P.C. v Golden Gate Petroleum, P.C. 2014 NY Slip Op 24063 Decided on March 19, 2014 Appellate Term, First Department teaches three lessons. One is that a well written letter to the client during litigation warning of potential problems in choosing one course of conduct over another may sway the outcome. 
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.
Move Quickly or Lose the Advantage in Legal Malpractice
Plaintiff sues several attorneys, and waits until nearly the end of the 120 day period to serve the summons and complaint. Service is not complete (mailing was later) and each of the defendants has a viable CPLR 306-b defense. One defendant moved within 60 days to dismiss and one did not. That 60 day…
Not All Damages Are Permitted in Legal Malpractice
For policy reasons New York Courts limit the types of damages that might be awarded in legal malpractice. Basically, as the NY Court of Appeals recently reiterated, only pecuniary loss may be the subject of legal malpractice litigation. This specifically and totally leaves out any type of emotional damages. Nevertheless people suffer these injuries when…
Judiciary Law 487? Yes. Everything Else? No.
SuccessfulJudiciary Law 487 cases are more rare than those dismissed. An attempt to deceive courts coupled with sufficiently egregious behavior is necessary. Courts often reject plaintiff’s attempts to portray attorney conduct as deceitful, finding instead that it is within normal limits.
In Cohen v Kachroo 2014 NY Slip Op 01674 Decided on March 13…
It’s Not Scandalous to Plead A Conflict of Interest
Sometimes, but rarely a defendant will move to strike pleadings that are "scandalous and prejudicial" under CPLR 3024(b). Sometimes it just does not work. In those instances, as in Armstrong v Blank Rome LLP 2014 NY Slip Op 30570(U) March 6, 2014 Sup Ct, NY County
Docket Number: 651881/2013 Judge: Anil C. Singh…
Mistakes in the Representation, Mistakes in His Own Defense, Huge Legal Malpractice Verdict
Borges v Placeres 2014 NY Slip Op 24053 Decided on March 5, 2014 Appellate Term, First Department is rather an amazing story. On one level it is the vindication of a man harmed, on another level it is the story of mistake piled on top of mistake, and in the end, our guess is that…
It’s Not Malpractice, But, It’s The Worst Case This Year
We read all the NY cases published that discuss legal malpractice, and once in a while we read a case that merely mentions the words "legal malpractice" in another setting. Varano v FORBA Holdings, LLC 2014 NY Slip Op 24056 Decided on March 4, 2014 Supreme Court, Onondaga County Karalunas, J. is the most gruesome case…
The Rare Insurance Company v. Law Firm Legal Malpractice Case
95% of the cases we see are former plaintiff versus their attorney, and the balance are former defendant against their attorney. Of those, only one or two are the insurance company versus their attorney after a settlement. Here, in The Insurance Corp. of N.Y. v Smith, Mazure,
Director, Wilkens, Young & Yagerman, P.C. 2014…
Many Hands Do Not Make a Better Stew
Defense attorneys, when moving to dismiss, or even to denigrate Plaintiff’s case will tell the court (rather haughtily) that "this is the 4th attorney for plaintiff" or something similar. Their point is that the case must be worthless if there have been multiple attorneys for plaintiff.
The Case is Settled…Now Comes the Bigger Fight
Piro sued Russo, Karl, Widmaier & Cordano PLLC for legal malpractice. Piro used attorney Rodriguez for that case. At the same time Bonacasa obtained a default judgment against Piro. A guess is that both arose from the same issues and that Russo, Karl should have been defending Piro from Bonacasa. So, in Russo, Karl, Widmaier & Cordano …