Disbarred lawyers, millions diverted, fraud, malpractice and missing money.  It’s a horrible story, and Plaintiffs are out $ 4.5 million.  They have been awarded summary judgment.  Will they ever collect?

135 Bowery LLC v Sofer  2016 NY Slip Op 31012(U)  June 2, 2016  Supreme Court, New York County  Docket Number: 108020/2011  Judge: O. Peter Sherwood…

Caso v Miranda Sambursky Slone Sklarin, Verveniotis LLP   2016 NY Slip Op 30965(U)
May 26, 2016  Supreme Court, New York County  Docket Number: 159192/2015  Judge: Carol R. Edmead is an example of a well pled complaint which shreds at the CPLR 3211 stage.  Tomorrow, we will examine the underlying claimed departures and how the Court…

If it were not bad enough when Supreme Court dismissed almost all of the legal malpractice claims, in Sitomer v Goldweber Epstein, LLP  2016 NY Slip Op 04152  Decided on May 31, 2016
Appellate Division, First Department  things got even worse when Plaintiff appealed.  On this round the case was dismissed in its entirety.

The…

Barouh v Law Offs. of Jason L. Abelove  2015 NY Slip Op 06769 [131 AD3d 988] September 16, 2015    Appellate Division, Second Department  like so much of legal malpractice revolves around the question of proximate cause.  Put another way, “sure a mistake was made” but so what.  What was the demonstrable effect?

“In an action,…

ITHACA:  This story is right out of the news, and is not yet a court decision.  Seneca County is at war with the Cayuga Indian Nation, and it’s over money, no surprise.  Even less surprising, its over real estate and taxes.  So, the question is whether the county may foreclose on certain property for the…

McHenry v Bader, Yakaitis & Nonnenmacher, LLP 2015 NY Slip Op 25429 [50 Misc 3d 977] May 22, 2015 Billings, J. is a prime example of what makes the “but for” portion of legal malpractice so different.  In this case, as in most we have experienced, the departure, or mistake is quite evident.  It was…

The name is arresting and the crusade is notable.  The entire case falls, once again, on a technicality.  What happens when a complaint but no summons starts the case off?  Dealy-Doe-Eyes Maddux v Schur  2016 NY Slip Op 03931  Decided on May 19, 2016  Appellate Division, Third Department tells us that:

“For more than a…

In a stark example of the “but for” element of legal malpractice, Hoffman v Colleluori
2016 NY Slip Op 03850 Decided on May 18, 2016 Appellate Division, Second Department stands for the principal of “no-harm, no-foul.”  Put another way, if plaintiff could not have won the underlying case, mistakes matter not.

“In 2006, the plaintiff…