The Law sites are consistently filled with stories of partners leaving firm A for firm B, and sometimes taking assoicates with them. Law firms fold and are re-cast as new firms. How does this restelss movement affect legal malpractice clients?
In The New Kayak Pool Corp. v Kavinoky Cook LLP ;2010 NY Slip Op 05176…
We commonly get two types of fraud letters, and they come all the time. One recent type is the "collaborative divorce" letter in which an offshore spouse needs help collecting a large equitable distribution check from the US spouse. Another type is the offshore large corporation that needs help collecting a debt from a US…
There is a rule against successive motions for summary judgment. The usual understanding is that you get one shot, and if you take it too early, or upon insufficient evidence, then too bad. However, in Alaimo v Mongelli 2012 NY Slip Op 02071 Decided on March 20, 2012 Appellate Division, Second Department we see a…
Client settles case and then turn around and sues attorney who settled the case for client, or worse (for the attorney) client settles case on his own, and then sues attorney who was already off the case. Can a client sue for legal malpractice after settling the case? The answer is yes, if the settlement…
When we see a business start up and close rapidly, we often wonder how could this happen. When we see a shuttered restaurant we wonder how one entrepreneur’s dream could go so wrong. Here, in Wo Yee Hing Realty Corp. v. Stern, Supreme Court, New York County, Justice Debra James we guess at three…
It’s rarely the mistake (the departure) upon which plaintiff and defense battle in legal malpractice. It is almost always the "but for" part of the equation, in which plaintiff must show a departure, but for which there would have been a better and different outcome, in which the mistake and the outcome are proximately related…
In Barocca v Garten, 2012 NY Slip Op 30609(U) March 1, 2012 Supreme Court, Nassau County
Docket Number: 5249/11 Judge: Antonio I. Brandveen faced a situation in which plaintiff had a long series of communications with the defendant’s attorney, and then served a summons with notice on the defendant’s attorney. Does this constitute good…
The interplay of bankruptcy and personal injury or legal malpractice cases is complicated. Basically, once one files a Chapter 7 petition, all assets, including the penny in petitioner’s pocket becomes part of the Bankruptcy estate. That estate includes any personal injury claims, and even any future legal malpractice claims. If they are listed in the…
Kenneth M. Block, Esq. and John-Patrick Curran Esq. write that the line between tort and contract claims in architectural negligence cases has become blurred over the years. Both legal and architectural negligence claims were at one time strictly divided into tort and contract sides of the equation. Each had its own statute of limitations, and each…
We are often struck by the human element and how it interacts with the institutional element of litigation. Schedules are packed, attorneys have many cases, court dates go unrecorded, attorneys just don’t show up for conferences, and yet the cases go on. We believe that even in a successful case for one side or the…
