When practitioners in Legal Malpractice stay in the area long enough, older cases they handled come back to save or haunt them. A prime example isDeNatale v Santangelo ; 2009 NY Slip Op 06398 ;; Appellate Division, Second Department . Here the defendant law firm wins dismissal based upon a now well known case.
Legal Malpractice News
Legal Malpractice and the World of Advertising
We’ve seen busses cloaked in ads, and we’ve seen big big Times Square building ads, but who knew there was a name for this style of billboarding? Who knew there would be a legal malpractice angle to it? We did not, until today. From Law.Com:
"Welcome to the latest round in what might be…
Legal Malpractice Litigation in the Third-Party Trenches
Fighting in the trenches during WW1 was said to be dirty and without any rules. It often seems that the same situation obtains for third-party litigation between law firms, one of which was responsible for failing to file a mortgage. Fighting over money is the domain of attorneys, it can be dirty, and seemingly without rules and…
Is Depression a Defense to Legal Malpractice?
In this upstate 4th Department grievance/disciplinary case we see the effect an attorney can have on the lives of his clients. Plaintiffs’ house burns down, and they retain this attorney to represent them. He waits until the very last day to file, and then allows the case to be dismissed on discovery shortcomings. The homeowners…
As Mortgage Litigation Expands So Does Legal Malpractice Litigation
Sub-prime mortgages and mortgage litigation in general has expanded if not exploded. New rules, new fees, limitations and new court parts have all followed in the wake. Borrowers who lose at the mortgage litigation stage then look to legal malpractice as a follow up. in Jay v. Gallagher
2011 NY Slip Op 32563(U); September 20…
Are Attorneys Held to an Easier Standard in Legal Malpractice?
We sometimes ponder whether attorneys are held to a lesser standard in Legal Malpractice, or to put it a different way, are plaintiffs in legal malpractice forced to overcome sympathy for attorneys? It cannot be argued that there is a fourth element in legal malpractice – the "but for" rule – that exists no where…
Legal Malpractice and Death
Much of what we report is legal malpractice, and that almost always deals with money. What did plaintiff lose? How much was plaintiff required to pay? What are the attorney fees? Why is plaintiff liable to pay an attorney some money? All important questions, and often they tell of a subtext of injury, divorce, disenfranchisement…
The Metaphysics of Continuous Representation in Legal Malpractice
When does continuous representation end? Sometimes there is a specific event (a judgment, a verdict, a motion decision) and sometimes there is a specific event plus a specific period of time (the date of the injury + three years) and sometimes continuous representation ends when the parties believe it ends. So it is in Hadda …
A Long Series of Estate-Legal Malpractice Transactions
Decedent hires attorney to prepare a will, and to make changes to beneficiaries for her assets. As one might predict, something goes wrong. in Gurvitz v Wank; 2011 NY Slip Op 32511(U); September 19, 2011; Supreme Court, Nassau County; Docket Number: 10468/06; Judge: Ute W. Lally we see the results. The litigation goes on…
Overriding and Abiding Conflicts of Interest
Might we trust our attorneys? Can a plaintiff be assured that the attorneys are not conspiring with defendants to "carve" up the settlement between them. Our system is based upon trust and loyalty, and a belief in the incentive of success. However…
It need not always be true. as an example, the Second Circuit reversed…