It’s a chicken or the egg issue.  Attorney drafts will.  Will is negligently drafted. Time goes by.  Will proponent dies.  Beneficiary becomes executrix. Estate sues attorney drafter.  Statute of limitations is raised as a defense.  Was the malpractice complete at the will drafting, or was it complete when the negligent bequest becomes active?

Generally speaking,…

Claiming a violation of Judiciary Law § 487 is easy; proving the allegations is very hard.  Here, in Estate of Lipin v Lipin  2019 NY Slip Op 03897 [172 AD3d 536] May 16, 2019 Appellate Division, First Department, defendant has failed in multiple iterations to make her claims.

“Orders, Supreme Court, New York County…

In Zegelstein v The Roth Law Firm PLLC  2020 NY Slip Op 30581(U) February 28, 2020 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 154224/2018 Judge: W. Franc Perry Plaintiff sued insurers and others in State and Federal Court where each of the cases was dismissed. The Legal Malpractice case is now dismissed as well,

” …

Any trial lawyer will be able to decipher the point of a difference between a pre-answer motion to dismiss and a motion for summary judgment.  In Caso v Miranda Sambursky Slone Sklarin Verveniotis LLP  2020 NY Slip Op 01384 Decided on February 27, 2020 Appellate Division, First Department permitted dismissal on summary judgment in a…

Plaintiffs struck out across the board following being “frozen out” of merger negotiations.  In Binn v Muchnick, Golieb & Golieb, P.C. 2020 NY Slip Op 01302 Decided on February 25, 2020 the Appellate Division, First Department found that the minority shareholders knew exactly what was coming their way, and nothing the attorneys did created…

Sultan v Zhu 2020 NY Slip Op 01285 Decided on February 25, 2020
Appellate Division, First Department is the story of a group of people living in a small condominium building.  Some were celebrities, some not.  Money disputes raged for years and years.  Finally, they dissolved into legal malpractice disputes.

“Defendants were retained by plaintiff…

Farina v Katsandonis, P.C. 2020 NY Slip Op 30468(U) February 21, 2020
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 154170/2019
Judge: David Benjamin Cohen presents a rarely discussed tolling provision of the statute of limitations.  It is the “continuing wrong” toll.  Continuous representation, as all know, tolls the statute of limitations while there remains an…

Once in a while plaintiff seeks summary judgment in a legal malpractice setting.  We anecdotally believe that Courts give greater scrutiny (i.e. a tougher standard) to plaintiff’s legal malpractice cases, and certainly at plaintiff’s seeking summary judgment.  Here, in Eurotech Constr. Corp. v Fischetti & Pesce, LLP 2019 NY Slip Op 01366 [169 AD3d 597]…