Summonses and Complaints served at the very last minute are a study in tension and worry.  With good reason, practitioners should fear the NY rules on service of pleadings.  Has the process server found a person of discretion?  Is in hand service good enough for the case? Has the after-mailing been performed correctly?   Sometimes, it is not…

It seems that everyone was in on the Barnie Madoff delusion, including  Unions in Upstate New York.  How the IBEW got involved with Madoff is not stated.  However, they lost enough money to sue their CPAs.  In Board of Trustees of Ibew Local 43 v D’Arcangelo & Co., LLP
2015 NY Slip Op 00113  Decided…

A client is free to sue his professional, whether it be an attorney, an accountant or even a doctor.  But, if the client has "dirty hands" or has participated in some untoward act, he may be blocked from pursuing the case.  This is the principal of "in pari delicto."

In an accounting setting, Schwartz v …

The legal principals are straightforward, and the prose is cool and scholarly, but the subtext to this legal malpractice case is heartbreaking.  Parent against child; economic interests tearing apart families. 

Take a look at Cusimano v Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker LLP   2014 NY Slip Op 04428 [118 AD3d 542]  June 17, 2014  …

Plaintiff lacked two elements of a successful legal malpractice case.  The two missing elements were  the "but for" aspect which requires that "but for" the mistake of the attorney there would have been a better outcome for the estate.  The second missing element was ascertainable damages.  Here, the estate had to prove that there would…

Judiciary Law 487 is the ancient attorney deceit law.  It arose just years after the Magna Carta.  During the period between 1267 and today, attorneys have constantly been negotiating cases for their clients.  Here, in Wailes v Tel Networks USA, LLC  2014 NY Slip Op 02861 [116 AD3d 625]
April 24, 2014  Appellate Division…

There are a lot of law firms that take on medical malpractice cases.  In the past, medical malpractice litigation was more lucrative than it is today.  At one time, attorneys were permitted a 33.3% fee. Now, it is on a lower sliding scale.  At one time physicians were willing to testify at trial for a…

Legal malpractice cases sometimes face a conundrum.  The three year statute of limitations is approaching, yet the case is not finished.  Attorney 1 (the potential target) is out, and Attorney 2 is continuing the case.  What does the careful plaintiff do? 

One solution (which requires the court agree) is to start the case and then…