Successfully sued for defamation, plaintiff turns and sues not only its defamation defense counsel in legal malpractice, but also its insurance carrier in bad faith. Plaintiff wins a big verdict from the jury, but the court now grants judgment notwithstanding the verict, dismissing not only the bad faith claim, but also the legal malpractice action.
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.
California Legal Malpractice in England
To show the worldwide nature of the legal malpractice industry, with its plaintiff’s bar, defendant’s bar, its insurers and experts, here is an article out of England, reported by a worldwide law firm, concerning a California legal malpractice case. The issue is a garden or varietal case of continuing representation and the statute…
Legal Malpractice and the Insurance Defense Attorney
Receiver starts Legal Malpractice Suit over Investment Advice
A couple is advised on transactions concerning an $8 million investment which ends up in a foreclosure setting. The receiver, standing in their shoes, then brings suit against the couple’s attorneys. Details.
Continue Reading Receiver starts Legal Malpractice Suit over Investment Advice
Legal Malpractice Cases 1/17/06 to 2/02/06
1. Fontaine v. Matthews, 7654-7654A , SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT , 2006 NY Slip Op 388; January 24, 2006, Decided,It appears that the underlying federal action was brought by plaintiff, a seaman, against the owner of his ship [**2] to recover for personal injuries sustained in an assault by…
Legal Malpractice and Structured Settlements?
Here is an article which discusses the Grillo case. The article appears in a structured settlement company’s website, but it argues that there can be legal malpractice in failing to advise on the positive aspects of a structured settlement.
Another Take on the Baker Donelson Legal Malpractice Case
Sui Generis and Legal Malpractice
Thanks for the generous hat tip from Sui Generis on the “How to Avoid Legal Malpractice” article.
San Diego Legal Malpractice Case goes on
Discovery Statute of Limitations in Maryland?
Here’s a blog entry from Maryland citing a case in which a discovery statute of limitations was permitted in a Legal Malpractice case. It allowed for a 21 year statute of limitations in an underlying matrimonial matter. More interesting is that the decision was en banc in an appellate court. Read on.