Nature abhors a vacuum, they told us in high school and the law abhors a wrong without a remedy. One particular area of legal malpractice where this occurs is criminal defense, in which no legal malpractice action might be brought by a convicted defendant, no matter whether the attorney’s mistakes contributed, or caused the conviction.

Another…

"The best defense is a strong offense"…"Tyranny shall not go unopposed!"  which of these two opposing story lines will succeed in a legal fee / legal malpractice case.  Here is one example where the fee side wins out.    Duane Morris LLP v Astor Holdings Inc. ,  2009 NY Slip Op 02544
Decided on April 2…

Taking over a pro-se case can be dangerous, as an attorney in NJ has recently found out.  In this story from Law.com recounts the attorney took over after a pro-se college professor started a employment discrimination law suit:

"A lawyer who prevailed in a Title VII suit three years ago has been engaged since then in an…

Judiciary Law sec. 487 is perhaps our oldest statute, certainly the oldest statute in existence concerning legal malpractice.  Recently the Court of Appeals decided Amalfitano v. Rosenberg.  Now we are seeing a resurgence of interest, and in this particular case a court reconsidering its earlier decision to dismiss a Judiciary Law 487 case based…

The Court of Appeals decided an interesting attorney fee sharing case today, in which the successful attorneys called their referring attorneys "unethical" and then promptly lost the case.  Samuel v Druckman & Sinel, LLP   2009 NY Slip Op 02447   Decided on March 31, 2009
Court of Appeals   Pigott, J. determined the following problem. …

Among the many weapons a court has is the rarely used injunction against future case filings.  After all, it’s a citizen’s right to sue.  One of our favorite New Yorker cartoons is the young child asking her mom when she will be old enough to sue someone.  Plaintiff in this case won’t be suing anyone…

In this particular case, it is possible to read through the entire Appellate decision and not even know what was alleged against the attorneys.  Rather, on summary judgment, the court determines that plaintiff could not have won against the insurer, hence, legal malpractice case is dismissed.  Unlike other types of cases, the fight is usually…

Law.Com reprints an interesting article from the Texas Lawyer on the relationship between the economy and legal malpractice litigation.  One theory is that plaintiffs are more in need of recovery, and will either bring more legal malpractice law suits, or are willing to sue over smaller sums.  A second theory is that the economic downturn…