Suing an attorney for his handling of a medical malpractice case is among the most complicated cases in law.  Plaintiff must prove the negligence of two professionals and must do so with the use of experts in two separate fields.  One common scenario is the attorney who bails out just before trial, or at summary…

Very common to legal malpractice litigation is a dismissal of contract causes of action as duplicative of the negligence claim.  Postiglione v Castro  2014 NY Slip Op 05527
Decided on July 30, 2014  Appellate Division, Second Department is an example of how a contract cause of action survives.

"In the order appealed from dated…

Jacoby & Meyers and Finkelstein & Partners are players in the personal injury big leagues.  Finkelstein & Partners may be the biggest law firm in NY state.  In any event, they deal with a huge number of personal injury cases.  One of the biggest concerns in personal injury litigation is who will pay for the expenses as the…

AQ Asset Mgt., LLC v Levine   2014 NY Slip Op 05244   Decided on July 10, 2014  Appellate Division, First Department  is a big commercial case with lots of overspill into legal malpractice and claims of Judiciary Law 487 violations. 

"By an amended stock purchase agreement (SPA) effective December 9, 2005, defendants Habsburg and Patrizzi…

In legal malpractice cases there is often a long latency period.  In transactional work, that might translate to the time between a deal and the day it goes sour.  That’s exactly the situation in Elstein v Phillips Lytle, LLP   2013 NY Slip Op 05132 [108 AD3d 1073]   July 5, 2013  Appellate Division, Fourth Department. …

Portilla v Law Offs. of Arcia & Flanagan  2013 NY Slip Op 08606 [112 AD3d 901]  December 26, 2013  Appellate Division, Second Department  tells us that the golden rule for defendants wishing to have a legal malpractice case dismissed on summary judgment is:

"In an action to recover damages for legal malpractice, a…

The story has a potential for pathos.  Attorney working for a law firm receives fee payments meant for the firm, and treats them as if a loan.  Why?  He has Parkinson’s disease, and perhaps needed the money.  The payments continue until the law firm moves to withdraw as attorney because of non-payment.Client sues for legal…

The back and forth of this large commercial stock purchase agreement, and the money transfers that ensued have had us read the opinion several times.  Even after multiple reads, we find the description of transfers still confusing.  For our context, the legal malpractice case was time barred.  However, in AQ Asset Mgt., LLC v Levine…