Reading the decision in a case like this requires both a score card and a play diagram. In LZG Realty LLC v H.D.W. 2005 Forest LLC ;2010 NY Slip Op 50958(U) ;
Supreme Court, Richmond County ; McMahon, J. a series of real estate transactions led to mortgages, foreclosure and charges of professional negligence and
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.
Strong Pleadings, Little Proof in Legal Malpractice
The art of pleading is sometimes overstated. Is it sufficient, indeed even preferable, to state the cause of action in understated tone, or is it better to explode with vicious terms? The jury is still out, but in Carr v Hayes ;2012 NY Slip Op 01184 ;Decided on February 16, 2012 ;Appellate Division, First…
Two Inscrutable Decision in Legal Malpractice Cases
Inscrutable decisions tell us the outcome, but do not enlighten the path to the outcome. Here are two cases, recently decided by the Second Department in which plaintiff lost a motion for summary judgment in a legal malpractice case. Why? What was the shortcoming in proof? We simply don’t and won’t know.
Trials, The Record and 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…
Getting the File in Legal Malpractice Cases
Client hires law firm, law firm is said to have made mistakes, law firm is said to have made corrective motions based upon its own mistakes, and then charged client. Law firm sues client, and client answers without filing a counterclaim.
Its not evident from the decision but we guess that client then hired an…
CPLR 321 and Legal Malpractice
We’ve noted in the past that legal malpractice cases sometimes have a history of legal malpractice within them. As an example, Moray v Koven & Krause, Esqs. 2010 NY Slip Op 07573 ;Decided on October 26, 2010 ;Court of Appeals ;Read, J. serves well. it involves a legal malpractice case levied against a former…
A Confused Set of Legal Malpractice Circumstances
Attorney represents client in a divorce case and then after a period of time (more than three years) represents client in a life insurance matter. In Verkowitz v Ursprung ;2012 NY Slip Op 30284(U);
February 2, 2012; Sup Ct, Nassau County; Docket Number: 665/11; Judge: Anthony L. Parga we see the back and forth…
Three Strikes and Legal Malpractice
Sometimes a legal malpractice case goes to the jury on the real question of whether plaintiff could have prevailed in the underlying case (the "but for" issue) and sometimes the legal malpractice case is ended at the motion stage. Here is one that was ended early.
Magidson v Badash ; 2012 NY Slip Op 00935…
Unintended Consequences and Legal Malpractice
Legal representation in even simple matters can lead to unintended consequences. As an Example H & J Restaurant v, A & J Grand Enterprises and Leigh, 2009 Slip OP 31544, authored by Justice Edmead, demonstrates how a simple ministerial mistake can end up with a potential $ 400,000 loss, with later judgment against the…
Fee Disputes and Legal Malpractice
Insurers tell insureds that legal fee cases are the surest way of starting a legal malpractice case. In Blank Rome, LLP v Parrish ;2012 NY Slip Op 00820 ;Decided on February 7, 2012 ;Appellate Division, First Department we see how this develops.
"Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Jeffrey K. Oing, J.), entered on…