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…
In an ironic example of mistakes, Plaintiff’s legal malpractice case against an individual attorney is dismissed not simply for the failure to file an affidavit of service but for the failure to ask the court to issue an order permitting late service of the affidavit.
Zheleznyak v Gordon & Gordon, P.C. 2019 NY Slip Op…
Garr Silpe, P.C. v Gorman 2019 NY Slip Op 32248(U) July 26, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 650247/2017 Judge: Kathryn E. Freed illustrates the uneasy fit between matrimonial cases and legal malpractice. Almost overwhelmingly, the legal malpractice comes up as a counterclaim in an attorney-fee case, rather than as a claim. Often,…
Predictions of future behavior based upon past behavior are possible, but often perceived as speculative. In legal malpractice settings past behavior can negatively affect the court’s view on what would have happened in the hypothetical future. This concept is demonstrated by Lisi v Lowenstein Sandler LLP 2019 NY Slip Op 01665 [170 AD3d 461] March…
An attorney departs from good practice and an immigrant is jailed for a year. The attorney is sued and (presumably) is not insured. He gets a childhood friend to defend the legal malpractice case. The childhood friend departs from good practice and the immigrant wins a large verdict. Attorney cannot pay the judgment and files…
Your attorney negligently steered you into bankruptcy? It could be a good cause of action in legal malpractice. A few technicalities, however. Do you still have standing to sue the attorney? Likely not. In Burbacki v Abrams, Fensterman, Fensterman, Eisman, Formato, Ferrara & Wolf, LLP 2019 NY Slip Op 04128 Decided on May 29, 2019 …
The City of New York waited too long to try to amend its third-party complaint. The Court found that the City knew all the facts upon which the new complaint might be based and after 26 depositions or so, its just too late.
Commodore Constr. Corp. v City of New York 2019 NY Slip Op…
In Pugliese v Martin Law Group, P.C. 2019 NY Slip Op 01810 Decided on March 13, 2019
the Appellate Division, Second Department reminds that legal malpractice consists of more than a mere mistake. Plaintiff must still prove proximate or “but for” cause. Merely failing to perfect an appeal is insufficient.
“ORDERED that the order is…
Attorneys are expected zealously to represent clients, all within the cannons of ethics, of course. However, “that wasn’t my job” or “I wasn’t retained to do that” is a frequent defense in legal malpractice cases. Exeter Law Group LLP v Immortalana Inc. 2018 NY Slip Op 01269 [158 AD3d 576] February 22, 2018 Appellate Division,…
The Second Department gives a black-letter lecture on the common interest privilege, in a legal malpractice setting. Saint Annes Dev. Co. v Russ 2018 NY Slip Op 00451 [157 AD3d 919]
January 24, 2018 Appellate Division, Second Department holds that:
“The common-interest privilege is an exception to the traditional rule that the presence of a…
