Plaintiff is injured on a cruise ship, and comes back to NY looking for an attorney. Right now we should be thinking, venue, long-arm jurisdiction, state or federal court.  However, in Palmer v Mulvehill  2012 NY Slip Op 33046(U)  December 19, 2012  Sup Ct, Suffolk County  Docket Number: 11-17748  Judge: Daniel Martin  things take off…

In this legal malpractice case, many of the causes of action are now weeded out after CPLR 3211 motions.  H.P.S. Mgt. Co., Inc. v St. Paul Surplus Lines Ins. Co.   2012 NY Slip Op 09028
Decided on December 26, 2012   Appellate Division, Second Department  
 

"In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for…

A very familiar scenario in the legal malpractice world is the Attorney Fee Suit / Legal Malpractice Counterclaim.  Facially, this combo is completely predictable and logically there is no shame or second-class status to the legal malpractice counterclaim.  In practice, however, many courts think the counterclaim is a "last-ditch" or equivalent effort to avoid paying justified fees. …

In Rooney v Manzo   2012 NY Slip Op 32966(U)   December 5, 2012   Sup Ct, Queens County
Docket Number: 5865/2012  Judge: Robert J. McDonald we see an inspired attempt to get around the 3 year statue of limitations.  It does not succeed.

"In his first cause of action, plaintiff sets forth his claim that defendant breached…

In this legal malpractice case, defendant made motions in a seemingly out-of-order fashion, yet succeeded even though.  Here is the AD discussing a novel method of moving to dismiss in Shirzadnia v Lecci   2012 NY Slip Op 09043   Decided on December 26, 2012   Appellate Division, Second Department:
 

"The plaintiff commenced the instant action by…

We would like to take this opportunity today to wish all a Happy New Year, with health and blessings.  This past year has been tumultious and the odds are that 2013 will be exciting as well. We’re looking forward to reporting on the Legal Malpractice news and cases as time and energy swirl around us.

Global Bus. Inst. v Rivkin Radler LLP   2012 NY Slip Op 09180   Decided on December 27, 2012
Appellate Division, First Department  is the exception to the rule, where Supreme Court declines to dismiss and the AD reverses. The AD’s reasoning is fairly clear.  They hold that Plaintiff cannot prove that the poor commercial outcome is…

In Green v Gross & Levin, LLP   2012 NY Slip Op 09027   Decided on December 26, 2012
Appellate Division, Second Department  which is a Pro-se legal malpractice complaint, all that can be discerned from the Appellate Division is that there were a lot of causes of action and that some of them survived.

The AD…