Could there be anything more ironic than a defendant attorney (accused of malpractice) losing the case because the defendant attorney failed to answer the complaint?

Rene v Abrams  2021 NY Slip Op 02431 Decided on April 21, 2021 Appellate Division, Second Department provides the short answer.

“In an action to recover damages for legal malpractice,…

We look to the Courts for legal guidance, and practitioners look to Appellate decisions in order to understand guiding principles.  In a legal malpractice setting, one question might be whether the standard of practice requires attorneys to ensure that a purchaser of real property gets everything that is promised in the contract of sale?

This…

People often ask attorneys whether they have any celebrity clients?  Here, in Carter v Sweeney  2021 NY Slip Op 31261(U) April 16, 2021
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 151067/2019
Judge: James E. d’Auguste Lil Wayne asks for 13 years of legal fees to be returned to him.  He is generally unsuccessful.

“This action…

Client agrees to arbitrate attorney fee issues.  Is Client required to arbitrate a legal malpractice claim as well?  In Protostorm, Inc. v Foley & Lardner LLP  2021 NY Slip Op 02227 Decided on April 08, 2021
Appellate Division, First Department the answer is yes.

“Plaintiff retained defendant Foley & Lardner LLP to maintain a malpractice…

Scarola Malone & Zubatov LLP v Ellner  2021 NY Slip Op 31199(U) April 8, 2021 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 651324/2017 Judge: Anthony Cannataro pits a “sophisticated businessman, with degrees from Wharton and the University of Chicago” against the attorneys in a legal malpractice counterclaim.  Sophisticated businessman loses.

“Where a sophisticated client imposes…

It is a bedrock principle of litigation that the vast majority of cases have to settle if they are to be resolved in any fashion.  Courts are not able to try all cases.  If settlements were not the norm, then litigants would routinely go broke trying to finalize cases which sat for years and years…

The lesson of Shaofeng Yang v Lao Ma Spicy Inc.  2021 NY Slip Op 31150(U)   April 6, 2021  Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 156063/2019 Judge: Verna Saunders is that a broad release, even in a commercial franchise setting, may eclipse a later legal malpractice suit.

“Plaintiffs assert, in their amended complaint, that this…

Generally speaking, there has been a stark split between the First and Second Departments over the standard for a Judiciary Law § 487 claim.  In the First Department there was a requirement of a “chronic and extreme pattern of legal delinquency” and in the Second Department a single egregious incident of deceit was sufficient.  Amtrust …