This case illustrates withdrawal by a defense attorney in a civil litigation, and how the court wrongfully directed that the case go on to trial without a short adjournment for defendant to get a new attorney. Result? Plaintiff tries case, gets verdict, defends appeal, loses appeal, and has to start all over again. In the
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.
$ 50 Million Attorney Fee Fraud in American Home Products Case
The New York Times reports that a Federal Grand Jury is hearing testimony on attorney fees taken in an American Home Products case settlement problem. The problem is that when the case was settled for about $ 200 Million in favor of 440 plaintiffs, the attorneys misled state court judges and did not tell them…
Shortcuts in Litigation and Legal Malpractice
Is the question of legal malpractice at the back of litigator’s minds? It probably is, if only for the reason that good lawyers are always calculating whether they are doing a good enough job, or, for that matter, doing enough in a case. Here is an example from overlawyered
"Well — as Ted points…
Court of Claims Legal Malpractice
The NY Court of Appeals has decided that the following items are necessary in a Court of Claims notice. Failure to include them results in dismissal and presumably, legal malpractice.
Actions filed in the Court of Claims must enumerate the "total sum" of monetary damages being sought or they are invalid, the Court of Appeals…
Is it Legal Malpractice to Blog?
BlawgIT and Law.Com "reports that a legal malpractice insurance carrier may be putting the kibosh on law blogs (blawgs). The article states that the insurance carrier, Executive Risk Specialty, a unit of Chubb, informed lawyer James Paone II, of Lomurro Davison Eastman & Munoz that lawyer blogging "is not a risk they are interested in…
The Elements of Legal Malpractice
What are the elements of Professional Malpractice?
Malpractice is a professional’s failure to use minimally adequate levels of care, skill or diligence in the performance of the professional’s duties, causing harm to another. In New York, attorney malpractice is defined as a "deviation from good and accepted legal practice, where the client has been proximately…
Failure to File Retainer Statements in Personal Injury Action is Fatal
It’s not entirely clear how the relationship between Attorney Fishkin and Marlow arose with Attorney Taras but it appears that Taras referred cases to Fishkin, or Fishkin was hired by Taras to work on the cases. many settled, but Fishkin and Marlow were not paid. They sued Taras for legal fees and lost on…
Milbank Tweed Defends Itself in Legal Malpractice
Here is a US District Court decision in the Offshore Express Inc. v. Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP, 03 Civ. 4260 case, decided: March 13, 2007 , District Judge Paul A. Crotty in the U.S. DISTRICT COURT,SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK .
At issue, in the statute of limitations case was whether "Milbank’s representation…
Does Guardian or “Next Friend” have Standing to Sue in Legal Malpractice?
Here is a Kentucky case in which guardian of infants or "next friend" of infant hires attorney for an automobile accident case. Infant later sues attorneys for legal malpractice. Question: when hired by guardian or "next friend" can infant later sue, or must that guardian sue? Answer in Kentucky is that infant does have standing…
Attorney may sue for fees in NY even though no litigation here
Solo NY attorney represented California client in Oregon courts is permitted to sue for legal fees here in NY.
Fischbarg v Doucet ,2007 NY Slip Op 01964 ,Decided on March 13, 2007 ,Appellate Division, First Department .
"With the evolution of technology, it is clear that physical presence alone should not determine whether one has…