Agency’s Former Counsel Held Liable in Contracting Scheme // C.A. Says Conflict-of-Interest Statute Allows Recovery of Payments to Independent Contractor
KENNETH OFGANG, of Metro News-Enterprise reports:
"The former counsel for the California Housing Finance Agency and a company in which he held an undisclosed interest must return payments made to the business under a contract…
Plaintiff wanted to buy a building, convert to a condo/coop and evict or buy out tenants. It’s a big time business in NY. Problem? The Unincorporated Business Law Professor’s Blog reports this case: Yassky v. Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Schlissel, P.C., 36 A.D.3d 420 (N.Y.A.D. 1 Dept. 2007).
"Plaintiff had retained the law firm to…
Here is a case reported by the Abstract Appeal Blog. Plaintiff’s toxic tort case was lost through negligence. His legal malpractice case was bifurcated, and he won the liability phase. However, the jury detemined that there was no proximate case. Ergo, no proximate cause, no damages.
Hinshaw reports on a two step process which allows a law firm to require binding arbitration on legal fees in California.
"Under this decision, a California law firm’s insistence on binding arbitration is a two-step process. First, the firm must insert such a provision in its retainer agreement. Second, the firm must offer the client…
Dismissal – outright dismissal of a case for failure timely to file a note of issue, is becoming a well known event in many of the metro counties. Unlike New York county, where extensions of the date to file a Note of Issue are regularly sought and granted, in Kings and Nassau, for example, the…
Plaintiff is a doctor who was sued in medical malpractice for an Erbs palsy case. He settled, and then turned to sue his attorney alleging that the attorney forced him to settle, failed to use photographs of the birth which woul have exonorated him, and allowing the doctor to be reported to the National Practitioner…
Legal malpractice in criminal defense does not exist. Bluntly put, a criminal defendant may not successfully sue his criminal defense attorney absent a showing of “actual innocence”. This translates to: reversal, ineffective assistance of counsel determined by a CPL§ 440 motion or exculpation.
Scott H. Greenfield reports an interesting take on this issue in his …
A report from Hinshaw:
"After a union’s health care fund failed to pay numerous benefits on behalf of its members, suit was filed against the Fund’s trustees and the third-party administrator, alleging multiple ERISA violations. The trustees then brought a third-party complaint against their attorneys, alleging legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty. The…
Law firm’s decision not to sue potential defendant could not be basis for malpractice claim because law firm acted reasonably where liability and damages were uncertain
Hinshaw reports:
Achtman v. Kirby, McInerney & Squire. LLP, ___ F.3d ___, 2006 WL 2720643 (2nd Cir. Sept. 25, 2006)
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second…
A recurring question in legal malpractice is whether the attorney client privilege is waived by bringing the case. While it is almost always waived as to the defendant attorney, for the most part it is not waived for other attorneys. Here is a Florida case on the subject.
"Coates v. Akerman, Senterfitt & Eidson PA…
