How and when does the attorney-client relationship end?  Does CPLR 321 have anything to do with calculating the date for statute of limitations purposes?  Is there a bright-line rule?

In this Supreme Court case  Frenchman v. Queller Fisher, authored by Justice Carol Edmead, we see all sides of the arguments. The opinion reproduces the…

Today’s Outside Counsel Column in the New York Law Journal is "The Use of Lawyer-Targeted Judiciary Law 487.  It discusses the 740 year history of what may be the oldest statute in Anglo-
American jurisprudence, and certainly the oldest to affect attorney conduct in and out of court.

As a treble damage statute…

Right now the legal press centers around attorney lay-offs and the general economic situation.  In this case homeowners were completely unable to either pay the mortgage or obtain new financing.  Eventually they went to a lender whose interest rate exceeded 25%.  Will we be seeing more of this type of case as the mortgage market…

 Refund Plus Life Insurance policies were purchased by Long Island attorneys including Daniel Buttafuoco.  When Boston Life refused to refund the premiums litigation erupted.  In the Virgin Islands, the insurance company asked for a declaratory judgment that it did not have to refund the premiums.  Things spiraled downward, and ended in EDNY legal malpractice litigation.  From…

One may lose the right to bring a legal malpractice case based on earlier attorney fee dispute resolution.  In this case , Margrabe v. Sexter & Warmflash, PC,  07-CV-2798, District Judge Kenneth M. Karas, SDNY, we see just how the process operates.  Plaintiff retains attorneys to represent her in a shareholder derivative matter.  Attorneys were…

On first blush this decision is a tad confusing.  Legal malpractice plaintiff sues his former defense attorney who defended him in a cross-over head-on car crash.  Plaintiff in legal malpractice case had driven the cross-over car, and had no memory of the accident.  After he loses the car crash case on summary judgment, and then…

Here is a rare case in which attorney represents farm owners on a wrongful death case, which does not settle within policy limits.  Instead of settling for $ 300,000 there is a verdict of $ 4.2 million.  Afterwards, everything turns upside down.  The farmer’s insurance company approached the attorney’s legal malpractice carrier and from there…

In the law, "attorney’s fees are awarded…" carry awesome power.  Traditionally, the American rule is that each side bears its own attorney fees unless there is an agreement or a statute which grants attorney fees to the prevailing party.  Attorney fees are awarded in L & T litigation, based upon the usual rental lease; in discrimination cases by…