A Staten Island judge rendered an interesting decision concerning loans to litigants in structured settlement cases, and perhaps during litigation. Plaintiff has a structured settlement coming to her, and needed court approval to convert it into legal fees for a custody dispute case. Judge said no.
Case is interesting for two reasons: first, how free…
Yesterday we published a story about a legal malpractice and mediation which has been widely reported. Plaintiff claimed that the attorney negligently lowered a settlement demand, which damaged it. Discovery of the mediation discussions was not permitted. Today we have a comment from one of the attorneys:
"A comment from counsel for Wimsatt:…
Here from the Illinois Appellate Blog is a Insurance carrier versus their trial level attorney case. Carrier lost a declaratory judgment coverage case, and now claims that the attorney failed to appeal. In the decision, based upon an automobile accident coverage issue in which the insurer claimed $ 25,000 of coverage, and ultimately paid…
This case, reported today is a dismissal of legal malpractice because the attorneys represented the company, and not the individual plaintiff shareholders.
"As a threshold matter, in order to establish a cause of action for legal malpractice, the plaintiff must demonstrate the existence of an attorney-client relationship (AG Capital Funding Partners, L.P. v. State…
The Court of Appeals has found in Rivera v Anilesh ,2007 NY Slip Op 05134 , Decided on June 12, 2007 , that a dentist’s habit [his regular procedure] of injecting anesthetic, is admissible to show lack of negligence.
"In this malpractice action by a patient against her dentist, we are asked whether the dentist’s…
Misconduct of a partner led to this verdict yesterday. The jury found that partner Henry I. Rothman abandoned a three person partnership, staying with only one of the partners.
This case started as a legal fee matter in Civil Court!! Parker Chapin then saw a counterclaim for legal malpractice. "The jury awarded $2 million in compensatory…
Mark Hamblett of the NYLJ reports:
"Failure to disclose a key document on insurance coverage for the Port Authority at the World Trade Center in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks and other discovery abuses is going to cost Wiley Rein and Coughlin Duffy.
The two law firms and the company they…
"A Philadelphia judge has tossed out of court the defamation action brought against Cozen O’Connor by a Main Line building fortune heir. A dispute over family money prompted legal action by Lincoln Meyers’ mother and a bank from which he had taken out several loans.
At one point, Meyers alleged, the…
This case probably stands for less than it may seem, but this offhand comment, lowering the demand from $ 3 million to $ 1.5 million, outside of the hearing of the mediator, is fodder for discovery.
"Los Angeles attorney William Wimsatt learned that lesson Monday when L.A.’s Second District Court of Appeal refused to…
This case from SDNY illustrates two points: the first is that dog bite cases really do require a history of a first bite, or proof that the dog in question was really really dangerous. The second is that an attorney ignors a notice to admit at his peril. Here, the attorney was reminded in writing…
