In DUSHYANT KURUWA and MONICA ARGUELLES, Plaintiffs, -v.- MILTON L. MEYERS, Defendant.;09 Civ. 4412 (GWG);UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ;2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122466; October 21, 2011, we a most unusual case of successful pro-se litigants. Even more so, the Court granted punitive damages agaisnt the attorney. 
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.
Pro-Se Matrimonial Legal Malpractice Cases
A post-matrimonial legal malpractice case has some elements of sadness. From the court’s decision, desperation is apparent. Wife has divorced, and four years later still is trying to get what she believes is justice. Attorney seems to be caught in a cycle of client dissatisfaction and litigation.
What finally emerges as the reason for the…
The Cove Cafe and Legal Malpractice
What happens when four people get together and decide to open a restaurant? Often enough, they are friends, and have only the highest regard for each other. They trust each other, and have high expectations that each is ready to get going and get the business started. It does not always work that way. We see, in Battaglia …
When Does a Conflict of Interest Turn into Legal Malpractice
Attorney represents X and then later represents X’s opponent in litigation. Aside from the fact that the opponent is X’s mother, when does such representation cause a conflict and legal malpractice? We see in Benaquista v Burke ;2010 NY Slip Op 04896 ;Decided on June 10, 2010
Appellate Division, Third Department that there is no…
Bad Faith Litigation in an Auto Case: Will a Legal Malpractice Case Follow?
Justice Schack’s decision in Taveras v American Tr. Ins. Co.; 2011 NY Slip Op 51831(U) ; decided on October 17, 2011 ;Supreme Court, Kings County ; Schack, J. is an eye-opener. Basically put, this was a three car accident in which American Transit had two of the cars. Each of the cars had a $…
Legal Malpractice Case Dismissed Sua Sponte
Cases rarely are dismissed by the Court for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with the merits, almost never sua sponte. Here is an exception. This plaintiff was enjoined from bringing any further litigation in either State or Federal court for anything to do with his former apartment. Nevertheless…
A Legal Malpractice Attorney and Legal Malpractice RICO Lawsuits
Plaintiff-.Attorney in this RICO action sues other attorneys who have brought legal malpractice cases, some against him. Plaintiff was at one time a major player in the plaintiff’s legal malpractice world. Now, in W. ROBERT CURTIS, Sc.D., J.D, CURTIS & ASSOCIATES, P.C., Plaintiffs-Appellants, – v – THE LAW OFFICES OF DAVID M. BUSHMAN, ESQ., DAVID M. …
Lockerbie and Legal Malpractice
is it legal malpractice for an attorney to answer a information subpoena concerning his retainer agreement with a client if the answer does not contain privileged communications? We will not know the answer to this question from GREGORY P. MORSON, Plaintiff, -against KREINDLER & KREINDLER, LLP, Defendant.09 CV 2994 (DRH)(ARL)UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT…
Old Cases, New Cases in Legal Malpractice
When practitioners in Legal Malpractice stay in the area long enough, older cases they handled come back to save or haunt them. A prime example isDeNatale v Santangelo ; 2009 NY Slip Op 06398 ;; Appellate Division, Second Department . Here the defendant law firm wins dismissal based upon a now well known case.
Legal Malpractice and the World of Advertising
We’ve seen busses cloaked in ads, and we’ve seen big big Times Square building ads, but who knew there was a name for this style of billboarding? Who knew there would be a legal malpractice angle to it? We did not, until today. From Law.Com:
"Welcome to the latest round in what might be…