We’ve seen $7 Million legal malpractice cases, and $ 700,000 cases, but it is rare to see a Supreme Court case for $ 7,171.00 Nevertheless, plaintiff brought Dash v Davis & Gilbert LLP
2013 NY Slip Op 51469(U) Decided on September 6, 2013 Supreme Court, New York County
Ling-Cohan, only to lose on a CPLR
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.
Does a Disciplinary Complaint End Continuous Representation?
When a claim for legal malpractice accrues is a contentious source of motion practice in legal malpractice litigation. Traditionally it is said that malpractice accrues on the date of the mistake, but that it can be tolled because of continuous representation. Continuous representation is said to require an understanding between client and attorney that more…
Everyone Is Sued; Attorneys Dismissed in a Realty Case
Except for the fact that they were there, there is little in this decision to show why the attorneys were sued. Antonelli v Guastamacchia 2013 NY Slip Op 32046(U) August 22, 2013 Supreme Court, Richmond County Docket Number: 100705/08 Judge: Joseph J. Maltese tells the story of a good real estate and mortgage company gone…
Malpractice? Possibly. Breach of Contract? No
Kassel v Donohue 2013 NY Slip Op 32015(U) August 22, 2013 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 150886/2013 Judge: Eileen A. Rakower is an example of the court working its way through a series of causes of action, and individually (rather than blanketly) upholding or dismissing them.
"As alleged in the proposed Amended Complaint…
Legal Malpractice Case by a Judge Results in Sanctions
Board of Mgrs. of Foundry at Wash. Park Condominium v Foundry Dev. Co., Inc. 2013 NY Slip Op 51423(U) Decided on August 23, 2013 Supreme Court, Orange County Marx, J. is a short caption for a very convoluted case. It involves real estate as does much NY litigation. What is particularly interesting here is…
The Red Zone and Cadwalader Legal Malpractice Case
As Christine Simmons of the New York Law Journal reports today: "Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft failed to defeat a malpractice suit brought by Red Zone, an investment vehicle run by the owner of the Washington Redskins, after a state judge found the firm did not prove it gave adequate warning that a side letter it…
Contribution and Indemnity in Legal Malpractice
CIT Lending Serv. Corp. v Morrison & Foerster LLP 2013 NY Slip Op 31980(U) August 20, 2013
Sup Ct, New York County Docket Number: 653797/2012 Judge: Melvin L. Schweitzer has a well written discussion of the difference between contribution and indemnity, as well as an exposition on how "pure economic loss" applies to legal…
Is Legal Malpractice a Tort, Property Damage or Contract?
The Court of Appeals has ruled that the only damages available in legal malpractice are purely economic. Dombrowski v Bulson 2012 NY Slip Op 04203 [19 NY3d 347] "We see no compelling reason to depart from the established rule limiting recovery [*4]in legal malpractice actions to pecuniary damages." "Wolkstein v Morgenstern, 275 AD2d…
A Delay in Filing, a Multitude of Law Suits
Commercial lender makes three loans to building developer. Lender hires law firm to make necessary filings to protect the loans. Law firm hires title company to provide title insurance and title insurance company hires another company to do the physical filing. A dispute over payment to the law company delays the paper filing, all to…
Damages and Breach of Fiduciary Duty
Airey v Remmele 2012 NY Slip Op 22299 ; Supreme Court, Erie County NeMoyer, J. is a case we started to read, and then had to go back to the beginning to sort out. Who would have thought that this story would have happened in the Buffalo area?
While this is not a legal malpractice…