The Appellate Division, First Department asks a question without an apparent answer:  Can an attorney be held liable of a voluntary assumption of a duty which is not reflected in a retainer agreement?  What happens if there is no actual retainer agreement?  For the moment there is no answer, but Genesis Merchant Partners, L.P. v …

In one of the shortest decisions recently seen, the Appellate Division, First Department lays out the Successor Counsel doctrine which essentially immunizes the first attorney in Liporace v Neimark & Neimark, LLP  2018 NY Slip Op 00112  Decided on January 9, 2018.

“The Neimark defendants’ failure to serve a timely notice of claim on the…

Supreme Court dismissed the complaint, but the First Department’s examination of the documents led to the opposite result in Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc. v Morrison & Foerster LLP ,  2018 NY Slip Op 00091  Decided on January 9, 2018 Appellate Division, First Department.

“Accepting plaintiff client’s allegations as true and drawing all reasonable inferences in…

Negligence is negligence, no?  Well, they are different as Amendola v Brookhaven Health Care Facility, LLC

2017 NY Slip Op 04090 [150 AD3d 1061]  May 24, 2017  Appellate Division, Second Department points out.

“The plaintiff Raymond Amendola (hereinafter the plaintiff), and his wife suing derivatively, commenced this action against Brookhaven Health Care Facility, LLC (hereinafter…

Legal malpractice cases, as we have said, cover events and issues all over the world.  Here, a land-owner was unhappy about trespassers over his property, trying to get to a beach.  The annoyance led to litigation, to appeals, to legal malpractice and judiciary law § 487 claims.  Palmieri v Perry, Van Etten, Rozanski & Prima …

It doesn’t get much simpler than a legal malpractice claim that the attorneys failed to answer, and a default judgment was entered.  When does the statute of limitations commence?  Billiard Balls Mgt., LLC v Mintzer Sarowitz Zeris Ledva & Meyers, LLP  2018 NY Slip Op 00018
Decided on January 2, 2018  Appellate Division, First Department…

The concept is familiar, but the name of this particular doctrine is new to us.  The First Department, in  Palmeri v Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP  Decided on December 28, 2017 enunciated the following:

“Here, plaintiff alleges not only that defendant breached its fiduciary duty when it terminated its professional relationship with him, but also…

Attorney fee disputes reflexively lead to legal malpractice claims.  While that is true, the concept that all legal malpractice claims are dubious strongly overshadows the unassailable fact that attorneys are human, and that without any doubt, humans make mistakes.  That being said, Louis F. Burke PC v Aezah 2017 NY Slip Op 32670(U) December 14,…