When may a legal malpractice litigant obtain prejudgment interest (interest from the date of malpractice to present)? When the malpractice arises from the loss of a cause of action. In DiTONDO v Meagher ; 2011 NY Slip Op 04805 ; Decided on June 9, 2011 ; Appellate Division, Third Department the third department enunciated two
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.
Massive Legal Malpractice Award in New York
Reported on the front page of the NY Law Journal today is a $ 5 million dollar legal malpractice verdict and judgment that could swell to $ 10 million after interest. in Friedman v. Boros, Justice Jaffe determined that the jury verdict will stand, and that pre-judgment interest in this commercial legal malpractice case…
Legal Malpractice and Judgment Calls in the Mortgage Industry
Judgment is the shorthand for the principal in legal malpractice that an attorney may not be held liable for legal malpractice solely upon an act or decision which is said to be the product of a question of judgment. Selection of experts, selection of witnesses, which questions are put to a witness, and many other issues…
Criminal Defense Work and Legal Malpractice
Legal malpractice litigation is unique. While the simple fact is that this branch of the law is written by attorneys, is utilized to litigate against attorneys, is judged upon by attorneys, the more complex story is that there are a number of unique rules. One is that a criminal defendant may not sue his attorney absent "actual innocence." There are no lawsuits…
Why Didn’t the Stipulation Work in Legal Malpractice Case?
We looked at the underlying decisions in this case, and are still scratching our figurative head here. in Lusk v Weinstein , 2011 NY Slip Op 04742 , Decided on June 7, 2011 , Appellate Division, First Department we see the AD citing an obviously correct principal of law: "a charging lien entered in the…
Lost Documents, Lies and Legal Malpractice
Empire Purveyors, Inc. v Brief Justice Carmen & Kleiman, LLP; 2011 NY Slip Op 31420(U)
May 31, 2011; Sup Ct, NY County; Docket Number: 110909/08; Judge: Jane S. Solomon presents a horrifying view of how clients sometimes fare at the hands of attorneys, especially attorneys who move from firm to firm. From the decision:…
Legal Malpractice Insurance Covers a Korean (NIgerian) Fraud
We commonly get two types of fraud letters, and the come all the time. One recent type is the "collaborative divorce" letter in which an offshore spouse needs held collecting a large equitable distribution check from the US spouse. Another type is the offshore large corporation that needs help collecting a debt from a US…
No Capacity, No Legal Malpractice Suit
Truebright Co., Ltd. v Lester ; 2011 NY Slip Op 04235 ; Decided on May 17, 2011 ;Appellate Division, Second Department is yet another example of a lost legal malpractice case, but not based upon the innocence or non-departure of the attorney. In fact, just as in a recent case dismissed because the statute of…
Inexcusable Attorney Negligence, yet Dismissal in Legal Malpractice Case
We often ask whether the law of legal malpractice is different from the rest of the negligence world? Why do attorneys get a second chance, in which judges ponder whether they could have won the case had they not made mistakes?
In Dempster v Liotti ; 2011 NY Slip Op 04408 ; Decided on May 24…
Millions at Stake and No Attorney Present
Plaintiff and another get together to form a corporation and buy a 44 condo short stay building in Manhattan. It’s a multi-million dollar deal, and the closing takes place with no attorney present for plaintiff. Later, plaintiff sells a different condo for $ 1.6 million, this time with an attorney present. The Chesterfield, (the short-stay…