Ward v Klein 2022 NY Slip Op 02153 [203 AD3d 1216] March 30, 2022 Appellate Division, Second Department represents the “no harm-no foul” analysis frequently applied to legal malpractice claims. Attorneys are allowed to withdraw from representation and often do. This fact pattern consistently appears in medical malpractice cases at about the time that 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.
Relying on the Consent to Change Attorney Date
Continuous representation tolls the running of the statute of limitations, which commences when the attorney mistake is made. Continuous representation exists because it is inequitable to require a client to sue its attorney while the case is still ongoing. That said, there are many requirements as can be seen in Walsh v Wallace Law Off. …
A Very Complicated Real Estate Deal Continues Against All
Cassaforte Ltd. v Pourtavoosi 2022 NY Slip Op 32063(U) June 30, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 451426/2020 Judge: Margaret A. Chan is a complicated real estate breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract case which cannot adequately be recited in a blog article. However, this is a short version:…
Intervening Causes and Death
Stevens v Wheeler 2022 NY Slip Op 31699(U) April 27, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 151129/2021 Judge: David B. Cohen is a complex statutory legal malpractice case which turns on how a Rhode Island Estate law treats a spouse in her fight with a son over the deceased father’s estate. …
No Good Legal Malpractice Claim But Possibly a Good Disgorgement Claim
Marcum LLP v L’abbate, Balkan, Colavita & Contini, LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 31913(U) June 17, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 151586/2021 Judge: Joel M. Cohen is a decision on a motion to reargue. The legal malpractice case was earlier dismissed as too speculative. The Fee claims remain.
“Plaintiff brought…
Failure to File A Notice Of Appeal is Enough
One Edgewater Equities LLC v Law Firm of Hall & Hall LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 31919(U) June 16, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 158110/2021 Judge: Barry R. Ostrager stands for the simple proposition that the failure to file a notice of appeal is a departure from good practice, and…
No Discovery, No Case
A legal malpractice case was lost in discovery disputes. In a fairly rare application of CPLR 3126, the complaint was stricken in Gorbatov v Tsirelman Decided on June 22, 2022
Appellate Division, Second Department.
“In 2014, the plaintiffs commenced this action against, among others, the defendant Leon Kucherovsky and the defendants Gary Tsirelman and Law…
A Hypothetical Course of Events
Scopia Windmill LP v Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 03996 Decided on June 21, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department succinctly describes how legal malpractice is a comparison of the actual outcome versus the hypothetical better outcome had mistakes not been made.
“Plaintiffs assert a legal malpractice claim alleging that defendant law firm…
Account Stated Trumps Unhappiness
Lee Anav Chung White Kim Ruger & Richter LLP v Capone 2022 NY Slip Op 31731(U) May 25, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 657197/2020 Judge: Arlene Bluth stands for the proposition that an account stated is stronger than almost any defense. Failure to object to an attorney’s bills basically precludes…
Outside the Retainer Agreement and Lost in Bankruptcy
National Air Cargo, Inc. v Jenner & Block, LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 01900 [203 AD3d 1655] March 18, 2022 Appellate Division, Fourth Department discusses two important issues: scope of retainers and the effects of a bankruptcy filing.
“Memorandum: Plaintiff National Air Cargo, Inc. (NAC) is a freight forwarding company, and plaintiff National Air Cargo…