Uninsured Motorist’s Coverage is insurance that one buys for the instance in which the other driver is uninsured or underinsured.  Before that coverage, which has already been paid for, is triggered, several things must take place.  One is that the entire policy payout of the other driver must be obtained and the second is that…

Two lessons for legal malpractice practitioners and, upon consideration, for all attorneys can be found in Wild v Catholic Health Says. 2013 NY Slip Op 04043   Decided on June 6, 2013  Court of Appeals.  The first lesson is straightforward.  One must preserve objections in order to appeal from the resulting order.  Here,  "On appeal, defendants contend that…

On occasion, the bitterness and melancholy aspects of a case are cognizable merely from reading a motion decision.  In Bloomgarden v Lanza  2013 NY Slip Op 31221(U)  June 5, 2013
Supr Ct, Suffolk County  Docket Number: 8587-12  Judge: Daniel Martin  two parents, both doctors, sue California attorneys over representation of their son, convicted of…

This clearly written Court of Appeals case lays out the Insurance carrier’s obligation to defend legal malpractice cases, and what happens when they refuse to defend.  K2 Inv. Group, LLC v American Guar. & Liab. Ins. Co. ,2013 NY Slip Op 04270 , Decided on June 11, 2013  Court of Appeals, Smith, J.

The Adult Use industry was the subject of constitutional litigation in the City of New York, and was essentially limited to certain non-residential corridors.  In DeWitt, New Yorkits use is also limited.  What happens when an operator hires a law firm to help set up an adult use industry, and finds that the…

From what we can decipher in this decision, an insured car owner was convinced that it had to pay $200,000 from its personal assets in settlement of a case, and that the insurance company was allowed not to pay.  Plaintiff alleges that this happened because of deceit. 

In Duszynski v Allstate Ins. Co.   2013…

Client retains attorney, and reaches settlement of an underlying workers’ compensation case.  He later sues attorney for legal malpractice.  May he?

The short answer is yes, a client may sue his attorney after a settlement, if "’if it is alleged that [the] settlement . . . was effectively compelled by the mistakes of counsel’" (Tortura…

Judgment calls are exempt from legal malpractice consideration.  Put another way, an attorney may not be held for legal malpractice on the basis of a reasonable trial strategy even when unsuccessful.  But, what is a trial strategy and what is a departure from good standards?  Often the difference is in the eye of the beholder…