Schiller v Bender, Burrows & Rosenthal, LLP  2014 NY Slip Op 02422 [116 AD3d 756]  April 9, 2014  Appellate Division, Second Department is a case in which plaintiff argued that he was misled by his matrimonial attorneys and settled the case in a situation where he was “effectively compelled” to settle.  The AD did not…

Vogel v American Guar. & Liab. Ins. Co.  2017 NY Slip Op 02462  Decided on March 29, 2017 Appellate Division, Second Department is the story of a fight between a law firm and its insurer, which will be going to trial.  Did the carrier have to defend this case of legal malpractice which arose…

Filing a petition in bankruptcy falls into three well-settled paths, Chapters 7,11 and 13.  The rules and the effects of such a filing vary strongly between them.  In a legal malpractice case, the debtor loses its capacity to sue and damages which might go to the litigant now go to the trustee.  As Nicke v …

Doscher v Mannatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP  2017 NY Slip Op 01973 Decided on March 16, 2017 Appellate Division, First Department is a case with Judiciary Law § 487 claims.  Supreme Court dismissed and the Appellate Division affirmed for these reasons:

1.  Collateral estoppel:  Plaintiff had two chances in the arbitration and both were denied;
2. The

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Daniel R. Wotman & Assoc., PLLC v Chang   2017 NY Slip Op 02141  Decided on March 23, 2017  Appellate Division, First Department is a 2010 case which has finally reached its final resting place.  What started as a fee collection case ends as a fee collection case, with the legal malpractice issues dismissed and affirmed…

Pro-se legal malpractice cases often unearth interesting descriptions of human behavior.  Sometimes they are baffling.  This is an example.

Checksfield v Berg  2017 NY Slip Op 01924  Decided on March 16, 2017  Appellate Division, Third Department.

“Plaintiff commenced this legal malpractice action in March 2002, alleging that defendant failed in his responsibility to commence an…

Ziming Shen v Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Silverberg, P.C. 2017 NY Slip Op 30500(U)  March 8, 2017  Supreme Court, County of New York  Docket Number: 150808/2016
Judge: Erika M. Edwards is a rare example of a criminal defense attorney legal malpractice case which is not dismissed on the typical grounds that plaintiff cannot show actual…

There are two alternative paths in a legal malpractice statute of limitations argument on when the statute commences.  The two choices are at the giving of the challenged advice or when all the elements of a cause of action exist such that a claim may properly be brought.  Obviously the second theory may yield later…