Settlements of civil legal actions are a good thing as well as completely necessary. Sit in the Jury Coordinating Part in Kings County for a day, and you will see 250+ cases being called. That’s 250 cases every day. There might be 30 judges available to try a case in Kings County. Doing the math
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.
The All Important Limited Retainer Agreement
A retainer agreement may be required by various NYS rules, but lack of one will not make attorney fees collectible. On the other hand, a specific retainer agreement may limit liability for failure to undertake other litigation. Flusser v Bikel 2019 NY Slip Op 32847(U) September 24, 2019
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number:…
One Narrow Exception Met, One Not Met
Suing an attorney where there was no direct relationship – privity- is impermissible in legal malpractice settings unless the conduct complained of falls within the very narrow exception of “fraud, collusion, malice or other special circumstances.” Here, the conduct fell into this “narrrow” exception.
A legal malpractice case must be commenced within three years of…
That Pesky “But For” Problem
Clients and attorneys all too often focus, almost entirely, on the “mistake” made in a legal malpractice setting, while giving little thought to the “but for” element. What would have happened if the mistake had not been made. 762 Westchester Ave. Realty, LLC v Mavrelis 2018 NY Slip Op 08452 [167 AD3d 684] December 12,…
Architects and a Standard of Care
A building owner wants to convert from office space to residential. An architect is hired. Someone forgets to determine whether air rights remain with the building or have previously been sold. Problem!
140 W. 57th St. Bldg., LLC v Falconer 2019 NY Slip Op 2768(U) September 18, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number:…
Privity in a Professional Malpractice Setting
Greenstreet of N.Y., Inc. v Davis 2018 NY Slip Op 07837 [166 AD3d 470]
November 15, 2018 Appellate Division, First Department illustrates how requirements for privity or near-privity are analyzed by the AD.
“Whether characterized as professional malpractice or negligent misrepresentation, the central issue is whether plaintiff has sufficiently alleged a relationship of privity with…
A Huge Real Estate Claim Gone Sour, A Legal Malpractice Claim Made Too Late
Kasowitz, Benson, Torres LLP v Cabrera 2019 NY Slip Op 32738(U) September 13, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 157367/2018 Judge: O. Peter Sherwood is the story of a $ 33 Million real estate transaction gone bad. Then, to make things worse for plaintiff, all the attorneys get the statute of limitations wrong. …
Legal Malpractice? Perhaps. Deceit ? Not in this Case
Jean v Chinitz 2018 NY Slip Op 05521 [163 AD3d 497] July 26, 2018
Appellate Division, First Department holds that merely hiding one’s malpractice is not deceit. Attorneys allowed three discovery demands to go unanswered and suffered dismissal. There were not exactly forthright with the client. However, some non-legal malpractice were dismissed.
“In its February…
When Documents Are Not Documentary
In a CPLR 3211(a)(1) motion, which is very popular in defense of legal malpractice claims, defendants will offer paper documents which they claim “utterly refute” the legal malpractice claim. These motions are surprisingly (and disproportionately compared to other areas of tort law) effective. However, all paper is not “documentary” as we see in First Choice …
Mutually Assured Denials of Summary Judgment
Golub v Shalik, Morris & Co., LLP 2019 NY Slip Op 32589(U) September 3, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 158055/2017
Judge: Barbara Jaffe is worth reading, simply for the long description of all the argument for/against malpractice, continuing representation, damages in a tax case, the application of future estate taxes and how…