In Felt v. Van Alstyne we see an interesting real estate-legal malpractice case, one which is, unfortunately, no so uncommon. Plaintiff owns 51 acres of property in Greene County and wants to sell a portion, 6.1 acres. The balance of 45 acres or so, which is unimproved, is to be sub-divided and kept. Defendant attorney…

Keeping in mind the biblical aphorism that certain things come in threes, we report on a second lake front legal malpractice case.  This one is ZAVALIDROGA,  -v.-  COTE,  JOHN DOE, DORIS M. KELLEY, JAMES E. KELLEY, DAVID LAPLANTE, individually and officially as an Oneida County Sheriff’s deputy, GREGORY J. AMOROSO, individually and officially, TOWN …

Upstate New York, Cayuga Lake;  each of the plaintiffs wanted a lake front property on a Finger Lake.  First, the Andersons bought the property only to learn that then had less lake frontage, had an easement running through the property and that their out-buildings were encroaching on the neighbor’s property.  The litigated and then sued…

In MELNICK v. CARY PRESS,;No 06-CV-6686 (JFB) (ARL);UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK;2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77609; August 28, 2009, Decided we find an excellent discussion of the rules of attorney fee liens under the Judiciary Law.
 

"Under New York law, an attorney who is discharged is statutorily…

Today’s New York Law Journal reports on a fee dispute.in an article by Susan Beck of The American Lawyer.  This, however is not a fee dispute one might see on a typical day in the fee dispute world.  Typically, those fee disputes are for sums less than $ 50,000.  Here, the client paid $ 5 million to Boies…

 Carl v. Cohen, Supreme Court, New York County, Justice Edmead 2009 NY Slip OP 30806(U), April 15, 2009 illustrates two distinct principals in the area of attorney-client privilege. The first is privilege and at issue communications.  The second principal, to be discussed on Friday, is relation-back and the statute of limitations.

Plaintiff in this case…

Plaintiff sues defendant attorneys for legal malpractice.  Among the claims of damages are financial losses in the underlying case, as well as emotional -pain and suffering-damages based upon outrageous conduct by the attorneys.  Are these non-economic damage claims permissible?

In New York, there may not be claims for non-economic damages arising from legal malpractice.  When…

The decision in this case is straightforward, but gives practitioners little practical advice on how to word and present an expert’s affidavit.  In Giardina v Lippes, 2010 NY Slip Op 06834; Decided on October 1, 2010;  Appellate Division, Fourth Department we see two things.  The first is that the two summary judgment motion rule…