In York v Frank  2022 NY Slip Op 05738  Decided on October 12, 2022  Appellate Division, Second Department, after discarding the statute of limitations as a reason to dismiss, the Second Department took up an alternative reason to dismiss.  This was done even though the parties did not address the issue.

“Although the Supreme Court…

Courts determine when the statute of limitations begins to run against an attorney in one of two general ways.  Either continuous representation ends when there is no longer a relationship of trust and confidence (acrimonious communication) or when the attorney withdraws.  Both can be the basis for the onset of the statute.  In York v …

Purchase at an auction at your risk.  That is one of the lessons in Markov v Barrows  2022 NY Slip Op 04780 [208 AD3d 401]  August 2, 2022  Appellate Division, First Department.  Of course, what is true in the underlying case is true in a legal malpractice case which follows the purchase of a medal…

Curtis v Berutti  2022 NY Slip Op 22307  Decided on August 24, 2022  Supreme Court, Orange County  McElduff Jr., J. illustrates two points which frequently come up in legal malpractice cases:  privity and collateral estoppel.  If a guardian hires an attorney to represent the guardian (and his ward) does the ward eventually have standing to…

Beneficiaries to a will can often show losses, and even damages (which are not necessarily the same), but almost always lack the standing to sue estate planning attorneys, as beneficiaries are not the Administrator or Executor(trix) of the estate.  In Alford v Katz 2022 NY Slip Op 05397 Decided on September 30, 2022 Appellate Division,…

Attorneys are afforded a very wide swath of protection when they act as criminal defense attorneys.  They cannot be successfully sued for legal malpractice unless the client can show that they are “free of a conviction” or demonstrate “actual innocence”  That did not happen in Brooks v Shechtman  2022 NY Slip Op 33155(U)  September 19,…

Relief for violation of Judiciary Law § 487 is not “lightly given.” Facebook, Inc. v. DLA Piper LLP (US)  .  As an example, in AmTrust N. Am., Inc. v Pavloff  2022 NY Slip Op 02862 [204 AD3d 599] April 28, 2022 the Appellate Division, First Department found, in essence, that a mere lie is not…

Feng Li v Shih  2022 NY Slip Op 04293 [207 AD3d 444] [207 AD3d 444]  July 6, 2022 Appellate Division, Second Department is a case so rife with wrongdoing, fee disputes, disbarments and other extreme forms of play that it stands out in a field which is awash with wrongdoing.  Here, the Court dismisses all…