Leser v Multi Capital Group LLC  2015 NY Slip Op 50272(U)  Decided on March 2, 2015  Supreme Court, Kings County
Demarest, J. reads like a poorly conceived story of corporate greed.  It does teach several important lessons in legal malpractice.  The first is how essential privity of contract between the attorney and the client remains.  …

Client has a problem selling his house in upstate New York because many many years before, his father did not record the deed.  He makes a deal with buyer and agrees to a reduction in price if he cannot present good title.  He hires an attorney to quiet title, and asks whether it can be…

Armstrong v Blank Rome LLP    2015 NY Slip Op 01755   Decided on March 3, 2015  Appellate Division, First Department is an example of a well-pled 487 claim.  It remains in the case after a motion to dismiss.  Note the small zinger at the end of the decision regarding “appealability.”

“The complaint states a claim for…

Greenberg v Hertzfeld & Rubin, P.C. 2015 NY Slip Op 30268(U)   February 25, 2015   Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 650960/2014   Judge: Debra A. James is a good example of the microscopic nature of Supreme Court’s review of a legal malpractice complaint for standing and retainer contract issues.  The case involves a web of…

Attorneys rely upon their legal malpractice insurance for stability and backup.  Clients rely upon the attorney’s legal malpractice insurance for safety and reassurance that when their human attorney makes a mistake, there will be someone who steps in and protects them.  What happens when the insurance company turns rogue?

Suckle Schlesinger PLLC v Ironshore Indem., …

The first set of attorneys obtained dismissal in 2014. Hyman v. Schwartz, 2014 NY Slip Op 01362 [114 AD3d 1110].   “In August 2007, plaintiff—then a Cornell University graduate student—was charged with violating the University’s Campus Code of Conduct by allegedly harassing a professor. Following disciplinary proceedings, the University’s Hearing Board sustained the harassment charge…

USHA SOHA Terrace, LLC v Robinson Brog Leinwand Greene Genovese & Gluck, P.C. 2014 NY Slip Op 31813(U),  July 9, 2014,  Supreme Court, New York County , Judge: Melvin L. Schweitzer is a fairly typical Judiciary Law 487 case.  It is a legal malpractice and Judiciary Law 487 case in which plaintiffs assert direct…

The NYLJ article did not discuss legal malpractice, but one wonders. Attorney who was a physician actually was in hosptial and observed plaintiff prior to surgery. There were problems, and plaintiff was referred to the physician-lawyer for a med mal case. Physician-lawyer didn’t tell client that he had seen him in the hospital [???] and…