Reading the background information or the caption of some legal malpractice cases often reveals issues about the case itself. In Stuart v Robert L. Folks & Assoc., LLP 2013 NY Slip Op 03319
Decided on May 8, 2013 Appellate Division, Second Department , we saw that the defense counsel’s name was all alone in
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.
What The Plaintiff Could Not Prove in this Legal Malpractice Case
While the decision inZaidman v Marcel Weisman, LLC 2013 NY Slip Op 03323 Decided on May 8, 2013 Appellate Division, Second Department does not specifically set forth what Plaintiff could not prove, we believe it would have been "notice" of a defective condition, and lack of proof (in the alternative) of creation of the…
Do Police Officers Have Legal Malpractice Rights?
The short answer to the question is yes, they do; the longer answer to the question is that their rights to first amendment protection of speech is very limited, and litigation over those rights will be stringently examined, or better put, subject to strict scrutiny. In Ruotolo v Mussman & Northey
2012 NY Slip Op…
Carrier Now on the Hook in a Legal Malpractice Case
Legal Malpractice insurance companies have two big exclusions. One is late notice of a claim and the other is acts outside the policy coverage. Late notice is a constant danger to the insured. Carriers take the position that as soon as the attorney knows there has been a mistake he is obligated to tell the…
An Early and Unsuccessful Motion for Summary Judgment in a Legal Malpractice Case
We believe the legal malpractice case based upon an unsuccessful medical malpractice case is among the most difficult cases of any to litigate. The practitioner must understand medical malpractice as well as legal malpractice, an in Vitale v Meiselman 2013 NY Slip Op 30910(U)
April 25, 2013 Sup Ct, New York County Docket Number: 108969/12 Judge:…
Are Limitation of Damages Clauses OK?
Yes, they are, and Soja v Keystone Trozze, LLC 2013 NY Slip Op 03147 Decided on May 2, 2013 Appellate Division, Third Department is an example of their application. In this professional malpractice (architects/house designers) plaintiff alleges that they built the house in violation of FEMA / flood elevation principals.
"Here, plaintiffs allege…
A Federal Court Decision on New York Legal Malpractice Law
ENGLAND and MIDWEST GEMS, INC., -against- . FELDMAN and FELDMAN LAW GROUP, Defendants.11 Civ. 1396 (CM) UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK; 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36382; , is as good a primer in the general and substantive laws of legal malpractice as one might read. There, Judge McMahon…
Direct and Derivative Claims in Malpractice
Standing in legal malpractice cases is determined by the question of privity. Privity comes in several flavors. One is whether there is a contract between client and attorney, written, oral, or implied. If there is a contract, (even if the contract is implied from the factual representation which takes place), then that particular question of…
Mass Mailings and Legal Malpractice
This case is really a fight amongst insurance companies, but it highlights an interesting source of legal malpractice cases: the referral. While at first blush it might seem unreasonable for client to hold attorney responsible for merely giving a name to them to speak to, in American Guar. & Liab. Ins. Co. v Chicago Ins. …
Willkie Farr and Legal Malpractice
Today’s New York Law Journal, in an article by Christine Simmons reports that a legal malpractice case against Willkie Farr & Gallagher has been dismissed.
"His complaint alleged that Willkie lawyers Marc Abrams and Matthew Feldman made "full-throated warnings" that Lichtenstein risked drastic personal exposure if he did not authorize a bankruptcy filing. Lichtenstein said…