Doctors get investigated by Medicare and the Office of Professional Conduct.  In Herschman v Kern, Augustine, Conroy & Schoppman  2014 NY Slip Op 00416 [113 AD3d 520] January 23, 2014 Appellate Division, First Department, they looked  into the licensure of his employee, Jerrold Levoritz, and his billing practices, and that these failures resulted in his…

What happens when the Defendant-Attorney defends itself, and the main witness plaintiff seeks to call is that attorney?  The textbook answer is disqualification on the advocate-witness rule.  That’s exactly what happened in Lauder v Goldhamer  2014 NY Slip Op 08321  Decided on November 26, 2014  Appellate Division, Second Department. 

"The disqualification of an attorney is…

 Rules are rules, no?  "A claim for legal malpractice is viable, despite settlement of the underlying action, if it is alleged that settlement of the action was effectively compelled by the mistakes of counsel." In the First Department the case is Bernstein v. Oppenheim & Co., PC and in the Second Department the case is…

 Judiciary Law 487, which was recently the subject of a Court of Appeals Case in Melcher,  is a difficult claim to prove.  It requires proof of an attorney’s intent to deceive the Court or the parties, and is viewed with a very jaundiced eye by the Courts. Agai v Liberty Mut. Agency Corp.  …

Thomas Puccio captured the world’s attention at the Abscam trial.  Think American Hustle.  He died in 2012.  A claim of legal malpractice, itself riddled with mistakes was recently dismissed.  Fundacion Fair Weather v Puccio    2014 NY Slip Op 32931(U)  November 13, 2014  Supreme Court, New York County  Docket Number: 65032/2013  Judge: Eileen A.

It is unfortunate to see a legal malpractice case be dismissed on technical grounds.  Here,in Cullin v Spiess  2014 NY Slip Op 07975  Decided on November 19, 2014   the Appellate Division, Second Department found that Plaintiff’s summary judgment motion lacked an affidavit of a person with knowledge, and that there was insufficient opposition…

 One piece of advice repeated endlessly at CLEs is that attorney fee cases created legal malpractice counterclaims.  In Jeffrey M. Rosenblum, P.C. v Casano  2014 NY Slip Op 51629(U)  Decided on November 19, 2014  District Court Of Nassau County, First District  Fairgrieve, J. we see a sterling example of this problem.  Attorney lost attorney…

Reading between the lines,Manus v Flamm  2013 NY Slip Op 07683 [111 AD3d 525]  November 19, 2013  Appellate Division, First Department sounds like a 1930’s romantic divorce movie.  Husband marries glamorous starlet, gives her beaucoup jewelery and then, The Divorce.  Starlet is caught between Husband and another woman.  His mother?  Anyway…

The complaint alleges…