Jarndyce v. Jarndyce was a Dicken’s fabulation found in Bleak House. The story goes that a battle in Chancery Court over an inheritance went on so long that the legal fees depleted the entire estate.

Here, in this story, is the modern analog. A suit for legal fees blossoms into a 7 year war, going from $ 30,000 to $ 300,000. Read it.

This is probably a once in a decade kind of case, but here is an assistant district attorney, on the cusp of retirement, and dating the complaining witness. He has the power of arrest [if she does not cooperate in prosectution], all of which makes for a superheated atmosphere. Wasn’t this a movie somewhere? Now the girlfriend/complaintant sues for legal malpractice. Details.

Anthony Lin, in the http://NYLJ.com today reports on a matter we wrote about long ago: “Judge Dismisses Malpractice Claim Against Herrick Feinstein A state judge has thrown out a legal malpractice suit against Herrick, Feinstein. The law firm had been sued by former client James Agate, who claimed Herrick Feinstein lawyers Anthony Jakoby and Harvey Feuerstein’s failure to present evidence on damages led him to receive a lower-than-expected award in a breach-of-contract arbitration before the National Association of Securities Dealers. But Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Louis York (See Profile) said the 4,839 pages of records from the arbitration proceeding showed that Messrs. Jakoby and Feuerstein presented ample evidence, including expert testimony, in support of Mr. Agate’s position. In dismissing the complaint, the judge also said the plaintiff was unable to show that malpractice was the proximate cause of his economic loss. Justice York noted that the NASD arbitrators, who awarded Mr. Agate $344,000, did not offer any explanation for their decision and could not be compelled to provide one. “Accordingly, there is no basis to assert that some failing by Herrick caused the arbitrators to rule as they did,” he said. Agate v. Herrick, Feinstein, 104289/05, will be published Wednesday.” – Anthony Lin

Here is an experpt from the Judicial Reports Blog, which asks the question: can participation in the summary 1 day Bronx trials [new idea] comprise legal malpractice?

“For some legal malpractice attorneys, however, such justice lite could expose attorneys to more malpractice claims in anything but the simplest slip-and-fall or motor vehicle cases.

`When you try a case, you have to satisfy the necessary burdens upon you to make out your cause of action,” says legal malpractice attorney Michael Levine. “And in many instances you can’t do that with one witness. In some motor vehicles cases you can. But in some cases you can’t — it’s just not possible — and those are the kinds of cases that would not be suitable for resolution within a day’s time.'”

Full blog details.

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office here is looking into former Chicago Alderman Bill Singer’s role in a controversial Near North Side land deal in which a local medical school says it was cheated out of millions of dollars.

According to a legal malpractice suit the medical school filed last month against its former attorney, the attorney and Mr. Levine conspired to sell property at North Dearborn and West Oak Street to Smithfield at a price far under market value. The property, which once housed the Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine, is located in the heart of a fast-developing residential area where property values have been soaring. In the lawsuit, the school claims the property was worth “$6 to $9 million” more than the $15 million Smithfield paid.

A source close to the matter says Mr. Singer, a top national Democratic Party fund-raiser and former candidate for mayor, drew federal attention after political insider Stuart Levine recently began cooperating with federal officials on investigations on several matters in which Mr. Levine was involved.” Full article from Crains.