Siracusa v Sager 2011 NY Slip Op 32244(U);August 3, 2011;Supreme Court, Suffolk County; Docket Number: 06-35942; gives Judge: Peter Fox Cohalan the opportunity to review a many faceted matrimonial child support legal malpractice case. Aside from the question of why a father would resist paying $ 125 a week in child support, the case seems 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.
A Primer on Legal Fees and Collection
Justice Judith Gische of Supreme Court, New York County presents a primer on attorney fee litigation and the disposition of counterclaims for legal malpractice in Hurley v. Bulah Church of God in Christ Jesus, Inc. In this case the Church had gone through some hard times. A pastor was accused of financial wrongdoing, and…
A Chilling Story of Legal Malpractice
This is the story of an attorney who put his own freedom at risk in order to stymie a former client, and a successor attorney. Why, and the clumsy method undertaken is the mystery. in In re: RUBY G. EMANUEL, Debtor.;Chapter 7, Case No. 97-44969 (SMB); UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF…
Privity in the Medical Malpractice Setting
we’ve often written about privity and legal malpractice, and ran across this case illustrating the boundaries of privity in medical malpractice. The facts are ghastly, and the outcome, for plaintiff, is doubly hurtful.
In Fox v Marshall ; 2011 NY Slip Op 06214 ; Decided on August 9, 2011 ; Appellate Division, Second Department…
Two Weeks Too Late for a Legal Malpractice Case
Plaintiff sues attorneys for a divorce situation in which he alleges they represented both him and his wife, and lost about $1 million for him in the proceedings. His complaint, in Verdelis v Landsman ; 2011 NY Slip Op 32196(U); August 8, 2011; Sup Ct, NY County; Docket Number: 651767/10; Judge: Judith J. Gische survives…
The Borrowing Statute and Legal Malpractice
In this recurring situation, plaintiff has both a California and a NY connection, and hired an attorney to do some work, which eventually goes sour. Frequently a case like this comes up in the entertainment field, with its CA and NY roots. As an example, Basilotta v Warshavsky ; 2011 NY Slip Op 32185(U); August 2, 2011…
A Very Strange Case of Legal Malpractice and Estates
Chiantella v Kroll ;2011 NY Slip Op 32140(U) ;July 19, 2011 ;Sup Ct, Nassau County; Docket Number: 019337/07; Judge: Jeffrey S. Brown is a case that seems strange on all fronts. Son is the beneficiary of mother’s trust, yet when she dies, he seems held hostage by the attorneys of the estate. Since the…
When is a Client a Client?
It’s not as simple as one might think. in Young v Quatela ;2011 NY Slip Op 32143(U); July 18, 2011;Sup Ct, Nassau County;Docket Number: 601658/09;Judge: Thomas Feinman we see how family and representation might be stretched or constricted based upon circumstances.
"The plaintiff moves by way of Order to Show Cause for an order…
Do Attorneys Churn Files For Fees?
Such is one of the allegations in Chiantella v Kroll, 2011 NY Slip Op 32140(U); July 19, 2011; Sup Ct, Nassau County, which was recently decided by Justice Brown. The fact pattern suggests that what is discussed is simply the tip of the otherwise submerged iceburg. How this situation arise is not fathomable. Here…
The Wide Shadow of Marc Dreier and Legal Malpractice
In this fascinating case, everyone lost, yet no one except Marc Dreier seems to be in the wrong. Plaintiffs went through a bankruptcy with their business Cosmetics Plus. They suffered the loss of two stores at WTC 1, and obtained insurance payments from AIG. Defendants represented them in the bankruptcy, and then took their law…