The answer to today’s question is "quite a ways." Without further comment, here is Breytman v Schechter ; 2011 NY Slip Op 51375(U) ; Supreme Court, Kings County Schack, J.
" In my prior February 8, 2011 decision and order, I granted defendants summary judgment and dismissed the instant action with prejudice. However, despite the
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.
The Relation-Back Doctrine and Legal Malpractice
Attorneys frequently use LLPs or PCs as their corporate identity. Does this really make a difference in small or single attorney settings? The short answer is: "yes!" in Teodorescu v Resnick & Binder, P.C. ;2010 NY Slip Op 20400 ;Supreme Court, Kings County ;Kurtz, J. we see what happens when plaintiff fails to name…
Collectibility and Legal Malpractice
There are conflicting rules in the 4 departments of New York. In legal malpractice, it is plaintiff’s obligation to demonstrate that a hypothetical judgment could be collected in a legal malpractice case in the 2d, 3d and 4th departments. In the First Department, it is an affirmitive defense for defendant to prove.
Here is a…
It Ain’t Over Till Its Over, Even in Legal Malpractice
As we come up on the end of the baseball season, we are reminded of the Yogi Beria phrase. Here inPsomostithis v Matthews 2012 NY Slip Op 32232(U) August 20, 2012 Supreme Court, Queens County Docket Number: 15200/06 Judge: Martin J. Schulman we see that processing and succeeding at a legal malpractice case…
It Ain’t Over Till Its Over, Even in Legal Malpractice
As we come up on the end of the baseball season, we are reminded of the Yogi Beria phrase. Here inPsomostithis v Matthews 2012 NY Slip Op 32232(U) August 20, 2012 Supreme Court, Queens County Docket Number: 15200/06 Judge: Martin J. Schulman we see that processing and succeeding at a legal malpractice case…
An Immigration Legal Malpractice Case
Ponce v Howard Simmons, P.C.; 2012 NY Slip Op 32247(U); August 23, 2012; Supreme Court, New York County; Docket Number: 108692/07; Judge: Martin Shulman is a classic immigration legal malpractice matter. It seems that there are ever changing INS or ICE or Homeland Security forms and programs and that the able immigration practitioner has to…
Limited and General Retainers and Legal Malpractice
Sometimes its obvious what responsibilities the attorney will take on in a new representation. If it’s a motor vehicle accident, then the attorney is hired to prosecute the personal injury action, up to and including trial. Here, in Hallman v Kantor ;2010 NY Slip Op 03280 ;Appellate Division, Second Department the attorneys took on a more…
Consistency as a Virtue
Here’s a fairly simple case. Plaintiff signs a real estate contract with a mortgage contingency. If she cannot obtain a mortgage she must give notice. If she properly gives notice she gets her down payment back. She hires attorney who negligently fails to give notice. She does not get her down payment back. Legal malpractice?…
One Calculation of the Statute of Limitations
A Long Island practitioner persisted in moving and appealing, and the AD rewarded him with reversal of the dismissal of two of the causes of action in his case. In Hoffman v Colleluori
2011 NY Slip Op 05669 ; Appellate Division, Second Department we see the AD calculating the statute of limitations for plaintiff, and…
Too Much Legal Malpractice?
Barely submerged below the decisions of trial and appellate courts is the fear that if legal malpractice litigation is given full rein, there will be a legal malpractice case which immediately follows every trial of any nature. After all, the one thing that legal malpractice always has are claims of attorney misrepresentation, and every trial…