Sparse on details, this legal malpractice arose out of a medical malpractice case in which the attorney failed to get his client into a breast implant class action. Settled yesterday, here are the 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.
Statute of Limitations Equitably Estopped in Legal Malpractice
That’s a mouthful. What it means is that in the case of Toste Farm v. Battle Fowler, in New York County, the defendant attorneys may have “lulled” plaintiffs into deferring claims until far later than three years after the end of the attorney-client relationship. Anthony Lin reports in the NYLJ Battle Fowler, now Paul…
23, 193 Legal Malpractice Lawsuits ?
Here is an article about a Mass. legal malpractice law suit which involved attorneys working for the court, and a 15 year time span. More interesting is the statistic quoted near the end. 23,193 legal malpractice lawsuits nationwide during 2000-2003, with about 2/3 resulting in compensation. Details.
Legal Malpractice Expert on the Defensive after Dallas Settlement
Here is a variant on the “$2.9 million Legal Malpractice Settlement in Austin Tx” which we published on 2/10/06. Here the publication cites a $ 5 million settlement and names one of the defendant attorneys, announcing that he is a “legal malpractice” expert. See for yourself.
Followup to the Jail – Legal Malpractice Story
Everyone made nice and the attorney who chose jail over legal malpractice has been released, and permitted to return to his criminal defense docket. Details.
Are Big Lawfirms the Taget of Legal Malpractice?
This article thinks so. Read the details.
Jail for Legal Malpractice?
All right, legal malpractice litigation is usually about money. Plaintiffs sue for lost money, defendant attorneys resist the demands for compensation, and the insurance carriers calculate the cost of defense in dollars.
Here is a case which goes one step further. Jail?
$ 2.9 Million Legal Malpractice Settlement in Austin, TX
Here is a report of a $ 2.9 million settlement in Texas concerning the law firm of Hilgers & Watkins. Details
Continue Reading $ 2.9 Million Legal Malpractice Settlement in Austin, TX
Legal Malpractice, Statute of Limitations and Criminal Convictions
In states other than NY, criminal defendants may sue their attorney after a conviction. In NY they may not. Here is a case from New Hampshire where the statute of limitations was tolled during incarcaration, permitting a legal malpractice case after. Report is from the Nelson Kindler blog.
Legal Malpractice and “Strategy”
John A. Day, in his Day on Torts reports on a Legal Malpractice case in which the attorney was defendant’s attorney in a ladder product liability case. The interesting point of his blog is that the focus of legal malpractice actions has veered away from simple blown statutes of limitation to questions of trial witnesses,…