CPA firm is hired to do taxes for a medical corporation.  Medical corporation’s bookkeeper is stealing large amounts of money, and is eventually discovered.  Was the CPA firm, which was not hired to investigate, nor to monitor the bookkeeper potentially liable?

JAG Orthopedics, P.C. v AJC Advisory Corp.  2015 NY Slip Op 51111(U)  Decided on…

Who may sue an attorney for legal malpractice?  In most cases (and that means almost all the time) only the party that hired and contracted with the attorney.  East 51st St. Dev. Co., LLC v Lincoln Gen. Ins. Co.  2015 NY Slip Op 31245(U)  July 17, 2015 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number:…

Plaintiff settles a case handled by her attorney and is dissatisfied.  Dissatisfaction is normal after a settlement, goes the saying, because everyone has compromised and no one is happy.  However, what if the settlement was required because legal malpractice had changed the landscape?  What if the attorneys’ mistakes had required that the plaintiff salvage something…

Anyone can get it wrong, but it appears that all the litigants and Supreme Court all got this lawschool question of statutes of limitation wrong in Stein v Chiera  2015 NY Slip Op 06234 Decided on July 22, 2015  Appellate Division, Second Department.  The AD Panel gives us a lesson in medical malpractice statutes of…

We’re scratching our heads on this one.  A Brooklyn Church decides to sell its real estate after 50+ years.  It finds a developer who offers a couple of million dollars for the Bedford Avenue property, and the church has its longtime attorney draft up the contracts of sale.  Downpayments are exchanged and then nothing happens.  …

The difference between legal malpractice and Breach of Fiduciary Duty can be important. In Ferrara v Amritt-Hall  2015 NY Slip Op 31228(U)  July 13, 2015  Supreme Court, Queens County  Docket Number: 22203/11  Judge: Allan B. Weiss the difference is whether an attorney’s conduct is subject to a 3 or a 6-year statute of limitations.

The…

In the Surrogates’ Court, cases move slowly, in keeping with the universal understanding that the main character in the drama is dead.  Steffan v Wilensky   2015 NY Slip Op 31194(U)  July 8, 2015  Supreme Court, New York County  Docket Number: 150020/11  Judge: Cynthia S. Kern may well be an extreme example.  Decedent died in 1993,…

Ponzi schemes, named for Charles Ponzi is a recurring situation for attorneys, especially those who meet with monied clients in transactional settings.  Biberaj v Acocella  2014 NY Slip Op 06165 [120 AD3d 1285]  September 17, 2014  Appellate Division, Second Department describes how an attorney-client relationship wandered into these storm tossed waters.

“The plaintiff and the…