A couple has a house built, and the builder is negligent if not fraudulent in his work. Litigation, three attorneys, legal malpractice against one of them, and a verdict for $ 846,000 ensues. In the end, the couple is “ruined.” Details
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.
Darwinism and Legal Malpractice
An interesting business report, which was widely repeated across the midwest business journals tells of the evolution of a law firm. As its medical malpractice dwindled, it took up legal malpractice work, evolving upward. Details.
Carla Martin sued for Legal Malpractice
Carla Martin, of Zacarias Moussaoui fame, is being sued for legal malpractice, and of conspiring with the airline company. Details
Punitive Award cut in Insurance Bad Faith and Legal Malpractice Case
NYS Escrow Safeguards Proposed by State
In an area common to all attorneys, and frequently the basis of a legal malpractice case, the State of NY has proposed the following, according to the NYLJ:
“The fund is calling for a new court rule that would safeguard the escrow accounts of suspended and disbarred attorneys. There is now apparently no clear…
Seattle $ 50 Million Legal Malpractice Case
Cairncross & Hempelmann PC has been sued by venture capitalist Brent Nelson alleging that two courts ruled against him for fraud, violations of the state Securities act and negligent misrepresentations, arising from an employment dispute between a Seattle tech startup and its founders. Details.
Rock Clubs and Legal Malpractice
No area of social or legal import remains outsides the bounds of Legal Malpractice. Here is a story by the Boston Globe about a rock club which sued its attorneys DiMento & Sullivan after litigation gone bad. Details.
Legal Malpractice and Sidley Austin Brown
Plaintiffs who asserted 13 causes of action against Sidley Austin Brown have avoided dismissal.Justice Fried in Supreme Court, New York County found claims failure to disclose a conflict of interest sufficient to state a cause of action for legal malpractice. Further, plaintiff’s assertion that defendant should have known that the transactions at issue in the…
Legal Malpractice and Reimbursements to Clients
The NYLJ reports that the Lawyers Fund for Client Protection shows a big spike in the monies paid out to clients. This year [2005] the amount was $ 8.1 million. Money for the Client’s fund comes from attorney registration fees.
It is likely that each dollar of re-imbursement represents a legal malpractice incident. For the…
Read about this Case; Is it Legal Malpractice ?
Here is some information from Daniel Wise of the NYLJ.
Motion to Set Aside Rejected After Defense Goes Unraised
By Daniel Wise
New York Law Journal
April 12, 2006
For the lack of an objection, a $1.4 million jury verdict in an accident case must stand even though the defense had a silver bullet that…