Legal malpractice cases are dismissed at a statistically higher rate in legal malpractice cases than in other tort or contract cases.  We believe that the reason is institutional.  Subconsciously, attorney-judges give greater scrutiny to legal malpractice claims than they do to other claims, and because of this, attorneys are granted a higher bar to suit.…

Switching it all around, in Blank v Petrosyants  2022 NY Slip Op 01283
Decided on March 2, 2022 , the Appellate Division, Second Department reinstated the legal malpractice claims and dismissed the Breach of Contract claims, aligning the case structure to what is most often left after a CPLR 3211 motion:  a good legal malpractice…

A case with multiple court reversals on reargument, starts and stops in the litigation itself ends, for the moment in a tolling order.  Tavares v Calcagno & Assoc., LLC  2022 NY Slip Op 30482(U) February 16, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 156499/2021 Judge: David Benjamin Cohen took place…

In Cohen Tauber Spievack & Wagner P.C. v Mehulol  Publs., LLC
2022 NY Slip Op 30401(U) February 1, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 652426/2021 Judge Bluth determined the merits of a case alleging that the attorneys failed in both the Supreme Court case as well as in a Rabbinical court…

Plaintiff suffered a large loss in arbitration.  Several documents could have been offered, but were not.  Malpractice?

Supreme Court dismisses the claim in All Vision LLC v Paduano & Weintraub LLP  2022 NY Slip Op 30464(U) February 9, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 653605/2021 Judge: Andrew Borrok finding that Federal…

The difference between a sua sponte order and an order upon a motion made upon notice may be slim at times.  In Meyers v Becker & Poliakoff, LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 01246 Decided on February 24, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department the motion was discussed at a preliminary conference and defendants were told not…

In EDJ Realty, Inc. v Siegel  2022 NY Slip Op 01147 Decided on February 23, 2022 Appellate Division, Second Department affirmed dismissal of a legal malpractice claim concerning a notice of appeal from a hybrid complaint against the DHCR.

“The defendant attorney represented the plaintiff in a hybrid proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78 and…

It can be difficult to overestimate the acrimony between siblings when the parents’ estates and inheritance comes into play.  As an example see Schmidt v Burner  2022 NY Slip Op 01191 Decided on February 23, 2022
Appellate Division, Second Department.  Here days before her death, the mother seeks to disinherit one son.  The attorneys are…