We have noted over the years that trial courts are all too eager to dismiss legal malpractice claims. We argue that trial courts delve way to far into the underlying transaction (or litiigation) in order to determine at the pre-answer stage, whether there is a "but for" component.
The same issue is present in Endless …
Continuing from yesterday’s blog post, we look at another appellate legal malpractice case. In Aramarine Brokerage, Inc. v Hall, Estill, Hardwick, Gable, Golden & Nelson, P.C. 2012 NY Slip Op 03533 Appellate Division, First Department the question of whether appellate counsel’s failure to argue that District Court allowed an impermissible argument raised only in…
We have mused that legal malpractice litigation is often created by financial pressures. Either the attorney has too many cases, or the law firm is understaffed, or the client is unwilling to pay/was overbilled. or, as discussed by Thomas Newman and Steven Ahmuty in today’s New York Law Journal, the attorney is aware of…
Attorneys are subject to a triumvirate of claims, which may generally be: legal malpractice in tort, legal malpractice in contract and breach of fiduciary duty. Attorneys are fiduciaries of their clients, but interestingly, accountants (even CPAs) are not. In Knockout Vending Worldwide, LLC v Grodsky Caporrino & Kaufman CPA’s, P.C. 2012 NY Slip Op…
We reported theRed Zone v. Cadwalader summary judgment news back in September. Today, the case is complete, andthe Judge awarded $ 16.7 million to plaintiff Red Zone for Cadwalader’s failure to carry out its instructions to ensure a letter agreement between Red Zone and UBS Securities LLC which itself memorialized an oral agreement…
In this legal malpractice case, defendant made motions in a seemingly out-of-order fashion, yet succeeded even though. Here is the AD discussing a novel method of moving to dismiss in Shirzadnia v Lecci 2012 NY Slip Op 09043 Appellate Division, Second Department:
"The plaintiff commenced the instant action by the filing of a summons…
It’s called lateral movement. The New York Law Journal is constantly talking about how mid-level laterals are being sought, or how they are finding difficulty in moving from one firm to another. Attorneys are constantly in motion, moving from one firm to another. Because movement is usually a business decision attorneys take care to bring cases…
Would the words "mutual understanding" have made the difference in this case? Continuous representation by an attorney of a client requires actual work, a mutual understanding that further work has to be performed and a relationship of trust and confidence. In Landow v Snow Becker Krauss P.C. 2012 NY Slip Op 31971(U) Supreme Court…
Legal malpractice is different from all other areas of litigation, as it has a fourth and unique requirement that "but for" the mistake of the attorney, there would have been a different and better result for plaintiff. In Portilla v Law Offs. of Arcia & Flanagan 2013 NY Slip Op 08606 Decided on December 26…
Reading the beginning of this case immediately brought us back to a Conflicts class at law school, and that’s a very long time ago. We were to to analyze an auto accident in which plaintiff resided in state A and the accident took place in state B and the insurer was from state C…well you…
