Privity of contract is an important element of legal malpractice. For policy reasons [and to avoid infinite and endless litigation] courts enforce a rather strict requirement that one may sue their own attorney, but not the opponent’s in legal malpractice. There are exceptions.
In LYDIAN PRIVATE BANK d/b/a VIRTUALBANK, -v- RICHARD A. LEFF, UNITED STATES…
In SASH v. ROSAHN, ESQ., as the Supervising Attorney for the Parole Revocation Unit of Defendant The Legal Aid Society, UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52480 June 16, 2009, Decided we see a three-pronged attack on plaintiff’s criminal defense attorney, each of which fails.…
Defendant attorneys in legal malpractice cases often have valid, technical, factual and compelling defenses. Sometimes they claim that the alleged malpractice is a question of judgment; sometimes the law suit is too late. In other examples, there is a less than clear relationship between the attorney and plaintiff, perhaps beneficiary to an estate or plaintiff…
In a short, one line reversal, the Court of Appeals put to rest a very old legal malpractice case, Gotay v. Breitbart.. The Court of Appeals simply wrote: "Plaintiff’s legal malpractice claim was not brought within the applicable statute of limitations period, and defendants-appellants established as a matter of law that the continuous representation…
Here is a blackletter rule: You must obtain consent from the Worker’s Compensation carrier before settling a personal injury action in which there was WC payments. If you don’t, the WC carrier takes a ‘vacation" and the plaintiff stops getting money. Easy, No?
in Flaherty v Attie ;2009 NY Slip Op 51296(U)…
Legal Malpractice is unique, in that lawyers write the rules for suing lawyers, and those cases are heard by lawyers. This situation does not obtain in any other field of jurisprudence. Here is an interesting case from Small Claims Court and a report from the NYLJ by Mark Fass. Read the case for its wide-ranging…
Many times in legal malpractice cases, courts find causes of action to be duplicitive. Some of this arises from over-pleading. As an example, plaintiff may plead legal malpractice, negligence, breach of contact, breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, fraud, and so on Courts will trim these causes of action, all the while assuring plaintiff that…
In a well-reasoned opinion from the SDNY, Judge Koeltl determined that plaintiff may continue with three claims against the attorneys. In SMARTIX INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, a.k.a. SMARTIX INTERNATIONAL, LLC, – against – GARRUBBO, ROMANKOW & CAPESE, P.C. AND ANTHONY RINALDO, 6 Civ. 1501 (JGK); UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK; 2009 U.S.
Privity of contract is an essential in legal malpractice litigation. One may not sue the opponent’s attorney; only one’s own. What makes for privity of contract? As all know, no writing is necessary to create a contract. So, can there be privity of contract without a retainer agreement. Putting aside Rule 137 questions about the…
So often, the practice of law seems to have devolved into an attorney v. client battle over the work and fees. Here in Morelli & Gold LLP v. Altman, NY Slip Op 31492(U) we see a large scale battle over a child support/custody case in which there has been litigation, fees, fee dispute, trial de novo…
