"The defendants Alisa Schiff and Schiff & Skurnik, PLLC (hereinafter together the Schiff defendants), who served as the plaintiff’s attorney with respect to the drafting, and the execution by the plaintiff, of a contract to sell her home (hereinafter the contract of sale), and the defendant Michael Gross, who served as the plaintiff’s attorney for…

Broadway investors often take a big chance.  they put up large sums of money in the hope that the show will be a big hit.  Sometimes the show fails, and sometimes the show closes before it opens.  Here plaintiff-investor lost $ 100,000 right off the bat.  Then there was a legal malpractice case over who…

Plaintiff retained defendant to represent him in a matrimonial action.  In the end, he was just too poor to get divorced.  The divorce action ended in a settlement, and the marriage remained intact.  Now, plaintiff husband sues attorney, and is defeated by documentary evidence that completely contradicts plaintiff’s position and is successful on motion to…

It is said that problems, or bad things, come in threes. In this example, the client lost a contract action, in which he had good counterclaims, because of his attorney’s failures. Plaintiff then sues the attorney, and in Benson Park Assoc., LLC v Herman ; 2010 NY Slip Op 03847 ;Decided on May 6, 2010…

PROTOSTORM, LLC and PETER FAULISI, Plaintiffs, -against- ANTONELLI, TERRY, STOUT & KRAUS, LLP, DALE HOGUE, FREDERICK D. BAILEY, CARL I. BRUNDIDGE, and ALAN SCHIAVELLI, Defendants/Third-Party Plaintiffs, -against- KATHY WORTHINGTON, Third-Party Defendant/Cross-Claimant, -against- DUVAL & STACHENFELD LLP and JOHN J. GINLEY, III, Third-Party Defendants/Cross-Defendants is the story of attorneys taking on work, and then blithly…

This US District Court case explores the boundary between civil and criminal matters, and how representation in both is parsed during a later legal malpractice case.  ALLEN WOLFSON, Plaintiff, -against- CHRISTOPHER BRUNO, Defendant;  08 Civ. 0481 (AJP); UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK; 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 144978;  December 16…

In Doviak v Finkelstein & Partners, LLP ; 2011 NY Slip Op 09085 ; Decided on December 13, 2011 ; Appellate Division, Second Department  the Court has to decide whether a failure to report an offer by defendants to settle the case might be sufficient to demonstrate legal malpractice, as well as to forfeit legal…

Cohen v Engoron, 2009 Slip Op 32521 is a fascinating look at the lower end of legal malpractice litigation. In this case, plaintiff is an incarcerated inmate who tried to sue his attorney for the return of $ 8500 in legal fees. While being incarcerated was painful for plaintiff, his attorney suffered a worse…