California has very different rules from New York on statute of limitations questions. Here is a case from California where plaintiff retained defendant attorney to represent her in a discrimination case. He had two paths to take, and after exhausting one, simply ended the work. Several years later, after the statute had run on legal malpractice for failure to take the second path, plaintiff sued. Held: the statute was tolled under a specific California statute. It would not happen in NY.

We rarely go outside of the continental US for Legal Malpractice news, but this is a hybrid. Prince Albert II of Monaco recently admitted paternity in a California case. His teenage daughter there in California cannot ascend to the throne, but is due part of the billions. I don’t remember, but isn’t her grandmother Grace Kelly?

The connection? Prince Albert’s consort [the right word?] lost out on her own claims. Why? Legal Malpractice in failing to file in Monaco by a date certain. Details.

Just trying to read through Judge Cote’s decision in Trepel v. Dippold, published in today’s NYJL reminds me of law school. Here’s what I get out of it. Trepel is suing the law firm because he thinks they helped one Diop to get paintings out of the district before Trepel could execute upon them to satisfy a debt. The case goes on, and Trepel wants to add Beldock, named partner, and husband to Dippold to the case based upon a “misrepresentation” made in court. Judge Cote denies his motion to add.

Matthew Hirsche of the NYLJ writes about the interconnection of a missing $500 million dollars, Flintkote Co., Imperial Tobacco Co of Canada, and the eventual collapse of the asbestos company. Plaintiff’s attorneys are now trying to determine whether Sullivan & Cromwell helped in diverting $500 million away from potential tobacco and asbestos plaintiffs. Details

Here is an interesting article from the NYLJ by Nelson Canter, which discusses the NJ requirement of an affidavit of merits which must be filed in all malpractice cases, including medical and legal.

Failure to file is similar to the rule for medical malpractice cases in New York including having a saving mechanism Details.

As time goes by, September 11 memories fade, even for those who were looking out their office windows at the first and second planes, as they screamed past. Here is a story, in subscription form, from Lexis about a legal malpractice action unsuccessfully brought by a person who was convicted of fraud in an insurance claim made for the World Trade destruction. Here is a partial reprint. Continue Reading September 11 and Legal Malpractice