Pinto-Bedoya v Yacoob  2019 NY Slip Op 51332(U)  Decided on August 14, 2019 Supreme Court, Kings County  Rivera, J. is the ridiculous story of how some individuals were conned into getting involved in a mortgage fraud ring.  Question:  how did the attorneys not know what was going on?

“The Pinto-Bedoya’s complaint bearing Index Number 75822/2008,…

Two threshold issues in legal malpractice, which are not mirrored in other areas of the law are standing and privity.  While intertwined, they are not merely two names for the same thing.  Illustrated by Matter of Benson  2019 NY Slip Op 51331(U)   Decided on August 12, 2019
Surrogate’s Court, Albany County Pettit, J. only certain…

Plaintiffs attend a settlement conference and agree to settle the case.  They are then  prepared for the allocution by their attorneys, which is a series of questions by the judge designed to document that the settlement is voluntary, not coerced.  The same questions are typically asked of the defendant.  The last question, which has no…

Irony aside, there are a significant number of failures in legal malpractice litigation.  These failures are aside from cases which seek to push the limits of the statute of limitations, continuous representation and non-privity claims.  This can be seen in a series of cases by one pro-se plaintiff against one set of attorneys.  The cases…

We’re excited to report that the New York Law Journal published this Outside Counsel Column today.

“Legal Malpractice Principles arose in medieval common law.  It is linked with and has become more clearly intertwined with ancient deceit statutes with the Court of Appeals’ determination that Judiciary Law § 487 controls over attorney conduct are not…

The statute of limitations has a number of purposes, one of which is to end stale cases, another of which is to quiet old controversies.  Giller v Kate, Nussman, Ellis Farhi & Earle, LLP
2019 NY Slip Op 32301(U) July 31, 2019  Supreme Court, New York County  Docket Number: 156885/2018 Judge: W. Franc…

Manhattan real estate is a steady source of legal malpractice cases.  It sometimes seems that there are too few clients, as conflict of interest claims often accompany the legal malpractice claims.  Here, too, defendant is accused of having too many clients in187 St. Mazal Manager, LLC v Herrick Feinstein LLP  2019 NY Slip…

Judiciary Law § 487 is the oldest statute in the US common law, dating from medieval English law.  It’s purpose is to regulate and punish deceit by attorneys.  The First Department looks at the purpose of Judiciary Law § 487 damages in Jean v Chinitz  2018 NY Slip Op 05521 [163 AD3d 497] July 26,…