QBE Ins. Corp. v Lebowitz  2013 NY Slip Op 31752(U)  July 11, 2013  Supreme Court, New York County   Docket Number: 600412/10 Judge: Milton A. Tingling leads one to the question, How could this happen?  Law firm defends insurance company, and routine discovery demands are served.  Routine discovery demands are ignored.  Not until after the…

Bedsores are a cardinal mark of neglect in hospital care.  They need never occur, and once they are created, should/could/must be treated so that they go away.  The decedent in this legal malpractice case was treated horribly.  The survivors then hired an attorney who let the case go, and himself was disbarred upon a guilty…

Attorney sues Client for legal fees.  Opening a legal malpractice blog with that sentence is akin to starting a novel with "it was a dark and stormy night…"  So much of legal malpractice litigation arises after a fee dispute that "Fee dispute-legal malpractice" is a google search term.  Here, in Brill & Meisel v Brown …

Matrimonial legal malpractice has two distinct sides.  In representing the monied spouse, it generally consists of a claim that the attorney overbilled, and churned the file.  In representing the non-monied spouse, it generally consists of a claim that the settlement was unfair, or that the attorney failed to discover a large cache of assets.

In…

The beginning and end of an attorney-client relationship have some formal aspects to them.  They are guided and controlled by CPLR 321.  The end of the attorney-client relationship has a direct link to the question of commencement of the statute of limitations.  Defendant attorneys in legal malpractice cases often point to harsh communications which precede…

We are not sure where the line between privacy and whistleblowing exists, nor where the balance should be.  Galloway v Wittels  2014 NY Slip Op 30006(U)  January 6, 2014 Supreme Court, New York County  Docket Number: 151287/2013  Judge: Cynthia S. Kern is an interesting example of how a person can become enmeshed in a situation much…

We have noted over the years that trial courts are all too eager to dismiss legal malpractice claims.  We argue that trial courts delve way to far into the underlying transaction (or litiigation)  in order to determine at the pre-answer stage, whether there is a "but for" component. 

The same issue is present in Endless …

Continuing from yesterday’s blog post, we look at another appellate legal malpractice case.  In Aramarine Brokerage, Inc. v Hall, Estill, Hardwick, Gable, Golden & Nelson, P.C. 2012 NY Slip Op 03533  Appellate Division, First Department the question of whether appellate counsel’s failure to argue that District Court allowed an impermissible argument raised only in…