Attorneys took on a jail beating case only to find that the most major injury, amputation of a testicle, was undertaken due to an incidental diagnosis of cancer, not due to trauma from the beating.  So, can they just quit?  Court says no.

Scott v Leventhal  2020 NY Slip Op 33276(U) September 30, 2020 Supreme…

Strategic choices in medicine and law have always been given great deference by the Courts.  “Medicine is an art, not a science” is often heard in Med Mal trials.  Strategic choices by attorneys may cover a vast area of their acts at trial, in hearings and elsewhere. Wormser, Kiely, Galef & Jacobs LLP v Frumkin  …

Lawyer is hired to represent buyer in an apartment building purchase.  Purchase goes bad because instead of a regular multiple dwelling setting, the building is actually a Single Room Occupancy (SRO) which are an old form of a hotel.  Buyer does not get what it expected.  Claim against attorney is that it did not read…

Melendez v Renfroe, Driscoll & Foster, LLP  2020 NY Slip Op 32600(U) August 11, 2020 Supreme Court, New York County  Docket Number: 157344/2019 Judge: W. Franc Perry tells a familiar story.  Familiar as in family.  Legal malpractice can take place in any legal setting, whether injury,  inheritance, invention or intellectual settings.  Siblings fighting over ineritance…

Physician is sued for office rent.  It’s a lot and the case comes down to whether he signed a guarantee or not.  Eventually his attorneys submit an unsworn report (affidvavit ?) of a handwriting expert.  Not good enough.  Legal malpractice follows and is dismissed in Antell v Goldstein  2020 NY Slip Op 32573(U) August 6,…

The claim is that the attorneys waived an evidentiary hearing, without consent.  Does that state a cause of action for legal malpractice?  In Law Firm of Alexander D. Tripp, P.C. v Fiorilla
2020 NY Slip Op 32636(U) August 6, 2020 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 654991/2019 Judge: Lucy Billings it does.

“In the…

Plaintiff sued and was successful in obtaining a judgment.  The judgment was uncollectible.  In Ofman v Tenenbaum Berger & Shivers LLP  2020 NY Slip Op 32828(U)  July 23, 2020
Supreme Court, Kings County  Docket Number: 524482/2019  Judge: Richard Velasquez,  Plaintiff alleged that had the attorney been quicker, the defendant would not have been able to…

CPLR 3211 dismissals are granted more frequently than might be expected,  Dedaj v Berisha  decided on July 15, 2020 Appellate Division, Second Department is almost an exception.  Two items are of interest.  First, the assignment of the legal malpractice claim is affirmed, almost without comment.  Second, the (a)(7) motion is denied almost mechanically.  This is…