Ressler v Farrell Fritz, P.C. 2022 NY Slip Op 31706(U) May 25, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 156946/2020 Judge: David B. Cohen is a case about representing clients who object to neighbors’ building plans in a wetlands setting, where the neighbors are asking the municipality to allow for big changes.
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.
Legal Malpractice Settlement Subject to Workers’ Compensation Lien
When a person is injured and successfully asserts a WC claim, a later action for damages against a third-party might be subject to a WC lien. Here, in Continental Indem. Co. v Redzematovic 2022 NY Slip Op 03866 Decided on June 14, 2022 the Appellate Division, First Department determined that the WC carrier could assert…
A Grace v. Law “Likely to Succeed” Dismissal
There have been very few dismissals of legal malpractice cases following the Grace v. Law decision. Rabasco v Buckheit & Whelan, P.C. 2022 NY Slip Op 03754 Decided on June 8, 2022
Appellate Division, Second Department is one of those few.
“The plaintiff retained the defendants to commence a medical malpractice action against the…
Not A Deliberate Strategic Decision
Vioni v Carey & Assoc. LLC 2022 NY Slip Op 03805 Decided on June 09, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department is a short odd decision. Previously, the attorney’s counterclaim was dismissed with a finding that they were terminated for cause. The cause seems to be failures in expert discovery. Now, summary judgment is denied to…
Unilaterally Changed One Word
Allen v Thompson 2022 NY Slip Op 31571(U) May 11, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 160342/2020 Judge: Sabrina Kraus. This legal malpractice case is based upon the allegation that Defendant Attorney “unilaterally and without Plaintiff’s consent, changed one word to the Agreement.”
“Plaintiff alleges the following facts in her complaint.…
Against Public Policy
Not for the first time, courts hold that suing an attorney appointed by the court is impermissible. In J.D. v Galchus 2022 NY Slip Op 22139 Decided on March 31, 2022 Supreme Court, Queens County Velasquez, J. held just that.
“This is a legal malpractice action against the defendant, the court appointed attorney for the…
An Unnecessary Arbitration and a Legal Malpractice Case
Cutie Pie Baby Inc. v Sasson Law PLLC 2022 NY Slip Op 31450(U) May 2, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 655055/2021 Judge: Margaret Chan is an interesting, and relatively rare application of Grace v. Law, 24 NY3d 203 (2014). In a family setting, two of the family seek to remove…
A Compelling Case, But Late
Roedelbronn v Borstein & Sheinbaum LLC 2022 NY Slip Op 31434(U) May 3, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 158045/2020 Judge: William Perry is a rare divorce legal malpractice case that has actionable facts which give rise to provable damages. (Example: a miscalculation by the Referee of $ 417,000 in plaintiff’s…
Defendants Lose A Summary Judgment Award on Appeal
The Appellate Division reversed the grant of summary judgment to defendants in Alrose Steinway, LLC v Jaspan Schlesinger, LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 03310 Decided on May 19, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department, knocking out each of the underpinnings.
“Plaintiff claims that defendants negligently failed to advise it that an amendment to a commercial lease…
The Right of Sepulcher and Legal Malpractice
A child dies and a claim of medical malpractice ensues. The parents consent to an autopsy and certain of the child’s organs are not returned. Apparently the medical malpractice claim founders in the absence of examination of the organs, besides which, the parents want to bury them. They sue their personal injury law firm in…