Plaintiff retained defendant to represent him in a matrimonial action. In the end, he was just too poor to get divorced. The divorce action ended in a settlement, and the marriage remained intact. Now, plaintiff husband sues attorney, and is defeated by documentary evidence that completely contradicts plaintiff’s position and is successful on motion to
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.
Bad Things, Including Legal Malpractice, Come in Threes
It is said that problems, or bad things, come in threes. In this example, the client lost a contract action, in which he had good counterclaims, because of his attorney’s failures. Plaintiff then sues the attorney, and in Benson Park Assoc., LLC v Herman ; 2010 NY Slip Op 03847 ;Decided on May 6, 2010…
A Patent Lost, A Legal Malpractice Case
PROTOSTORM, LLC and PETER FAULISI, Plaintiffs, -against- ANTONELLI, TERRY, STOUT & KRAUS, LLP, DALE HOGUE, FREDERICK D. BAILEY, CARL I. BRUNDIDGE, and ALAN SCHIAVELLI, Defendants/Third-Party Plaintiffs, -against- KATHY WORTHINGTON, Third-Party Defendant/Cross-Claimant, -against- DUVAL & STACHENFELD LLP and JOHN J. GINLEY, III, Third-Party Defendants/Cross-Defendants is the story of attorneys taking on work, and then blithly…
Criminal and Civil Matters in Legal Malpractice
This US District Court case explores the boundary between civil and criminal matters, and how representation in both is parsed during a later legal malpractice case. ALLEN WOLFSON, Plaintiff, -against- CHRISTOPHER BRUNO, Defendant; 08 Civ. 0481 (AJP); UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK; 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 144978; December 16…
Termination, Fees and Legal Malpractice
In Doviak v Finkelstein & Partners, LLP ; 2011 NY Slip Op 09085 ; Decided on December 13, 2011 ; Appellate Division, Second Department the Court has to decide whether a failure to report an offer by defendants to settle the case might be sufficient to demonstrate legal malpractice, as well as to forfeit legal…
Bad Outcomes for All in this Legal Malpractice Case
Cohen v Engoron, 2009 Slip Op 32521 is a fascinating look at the lower end of legal malpractice litigation. In this case, plaintiff is an incarcerated inmate who tried to sue his attorney for the return of $ 8500 in legal fees. While being incarcerated was painful for plaintiff, his attorney suffered a worse…
Successor and Predecessor Attorneys in Legal Malpractice Litigation
Once upon a time, an attorney got a job and stayed there for life. Now, attorneys move from one firm to the next, and carry on litigation as they move. How does the Court parse liability between predecessor and successor attorneys in these mobile days?
Phoenix Erectors, LLC v Fogarty ; 2011 NY Slip Op…
Documentary Evidence and Legal Malpractice
Sometimes, the world of legal malpractice seems to be topsy-turfy in the sense that defendants point to their acts as proof that they did not commit legal malpractice, and plaintiffs point to the same act to prove the opposite. Here in Marom v Anselmo ; 2011 NY Slip Op 08914 ; Decided on December 6…
Legal Malpractice and Lease Restrictions
We admit that sometimes we do not understand how a defendant can actually raise a defense that both it and the Court knows won’t pass a smell test. Nevertheless, the defense gets raised.
In M & R Ginsburg, LLC v Segal, Goldman, Mazzotta & Siegel, P.C. ; 2011 NY Slip Op 08877
Decided on December…
A Criminal Defendant’s Legal Malpractice Case
Meralla v Goldenberg ; 2011 NY Slip Op 08656 ; Decided on November 29, 2011 ; Appellate Division, First Department presents an unusual exception to the rule that a criminal defendant may not sue his criminal defense attorneys. In essence, plaintiff claims serial acts of ineffective assistance of counsel, both at the trial and at…