Millennium Imports LLC marketed a huge success in the vodka world, "Belvedere."  Millennium was itself a golden child of the Louis Vuitton, Moet and Hennessy (LVMH) companies, so when a California winery that already had a wine called Belvedere claimed trade infringement, a small licensing fee of $ 30,000 per year was nothing to worry…

Often, insurance companies seem opaque and distant.  Their decision making is hidden, individuals seem to have significant power over settlement decisions, and the rules that permit denials of coverage are Byzantine.  Here is a rare look into how the defense bar and the insurance companies interact. Insurance Corp. of N.Y. v Smith, Mazure, Director, Wilkens, …

Straw buyer and fake seller.  Not unheard of terms in real estate transactions.  They are bad enough, but then the escrow monies on their way to pay off the earlier mortgage go missing.  Who’s to blame?

In Khadidiatou Bah v Stuart   2013 NY Slip Op 30171(U)   January 17, 2013  Supreme Court, New York County  Docket…

Gallet Dreyer & Berkey, LLP v Basile  2013 NY Slip Op 30101(U)  January 16, 2013  Supreme Court, New York County  Docket Number: 109687/11  Judge: Donna M. Mills is a recently decided case that touches on three themes.  The first is legal malpractice cases after settlement, the second is privity and the third is hindsight.  Plaintiffs…

Wadsworth Condos LLC sought to develop a condominium building, and took on others as kind-of partners, but really as tenants in common.  What developed thereafter led to problems with municipal entities, a lot of money spent and  a legal malpractice case, Wadsworth Condos LLC v Dollinger Gonski & Grossman   2013 NY Slip Op 30149(U)  …

The Appellate Division avoided rubber stamping a summary judgment decision, and took a longer and closer look at the underlying case.  In this particular instance it affirmed, but did not simply say that settlement of the underlying case ended the discussion.  In Bellinson Law, LLC v Iannucci
2013 NY Slip Op 00395   Decided on January…

Accusing an attorney of legal malpractice may have dangerous consequences, but, as in all things, the details matter.  To whom you make the accusation is very important.  Make it to just anyone, and there might be a good defamation law suit; make it to another concerned attorney and it could be permissible.

In Sklover v Sack  2013…

Often enough, Courts have applied res judicata broadly to the question of attorney fee disputes and a later legal malpractice issue.  As a blackletter rule, if an attorney asks the court to set a fee, and it does, that act bars plaintiff from bringing the legal malpractice case on the theory that fees may not…