The Second Department rarely reverses Supreme Court’s grant of Summary Judgment to the attorneys in a legal malpractice case, but Smith v Kaplan Belsky Ross Bartell, LLP 2015 NY Slip Op 02108 Decided on March 18, 2015 Appellate Division, Second Department is one example.
“The plaintiffs were former executives of Odyssey Pictures Corporation (hereinafter Odyssey)…
Judiciary Law 487 is the attorney deceit law from Olde England. It allows for treble damages against an attorney who attempts or succeeds at deceit towards the Court or a party in litigation. How bad do you have to be to violate the statute?
Savitt v Greenberg Traurig, LLP 2015 NY Slip Op 02003 Decided…
Pari Delicto or unclean hands is a principal that the courts should not decide between wrongdoers. When may the court use this principal to wipe the board clean and allow no-one to bring a legal malpractice or a judiciary law 487 claim?
In Savitt v Greenberg Traurig, LLP 2015 NY Slip Op 02003 Decided on…
When does Continuous representation end? Sometimes a matter of days can be decisive. In Alizio v Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, P.C. 2015 NY Slip Op 01909 Decided on March 11, 2015 Appellate Division, Second Department it was the difference between April 20 and May 10. If continuous representation ended on April 20 the complaint was…
When does continuing representation end? In the absence of a bright line rule, the Courts and practitioners have to rely upon arguments that the representation continued while there was a continuing relationship of trust and confidence and a shared understanding of the need for more work on the case. An alternative bright line rule might…
CLEs on professional malpractice always discuss the question of whether attorney fee claims trigger legal malpractice counterclaims. They do. Sometimes the counterclaim is unwarranted. Often it is not. The coupling of fee claim-malpractice counterclaim stains the entire field. Attorneys commonly brand all legal malpractice as fee-avoidance or, at best, misguided emotional response. Anyway…
In general, the rule in legal malpractice claims after a criminal prosecution is that the plaintiff must show “actual innocence” in order to sue the criminal defense attorney. This principal prevents 99% of criminal defendants from proceeding. Meralla v Goldenberg 2015 NY Slip Op 01873 Decided on March 5, 2015 Appellate Division, First Department is…
In a fairly normal fashion, without much to indicate why the pleading was good enough, Supreme Court, Kings County has denied a CPLR 3211 motion to dismiss in Farkas v Mascolo
2015 NY Slip Op 01605 Decided on February 25, 2015 Appellate Division, Second Department.
“On a motion pursuant to CPLR 3211(a)(7) to dismiss a…
We must say that we’re puzzled over the Appellate Division’s reference to a CPLR 3211(a) motion “to dismiss the complaint insofar as asserted against them, or, in the alternative, for summary judgment dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against them, or to compel additional discovery.” Portilla v Law Offs. of Arcia & Flanagan 2015 NY…
Issues that are beyond the "ken" of ordinary jurors require expert testimony says the First Department in Wadsworth Condos, LLC v Dollinger Gonski & Grossman 2014 NY Slip Op 00930 [114 AD3d 487] February 13, 2014 Appellate Division, First Department.
"Plaintiff’s belatedly asserted grounds for alleging legal malpractice may be entertained since they involve no…
