One of the more intriguing aspects of the attorney fee and disputes field is the interplay of a strongly put rule to attorneys, and the consequences of ignoring that rule.  The rule:  "You must have a retainer agreement."  What happens when an attorney sues for fees, yet failed to have a retainer agreement as defined…

Plaintiff suffers a personal injury trip and fall, and hires attorney 1 to sue the landlord.  The landlord is sued.  Case continues and eventually an inquest is ordered.  At the inquest, the Court tells the attorneys that they need medical records.  This seems to be an elementary point, since it’s well known that one needs…

New York corporation has a California case.  An attorney comes calling, soliciting business and asking the corporation to hire the California attorney.  They agree, and in the retainer agreement are two items.  One is a jurisdiction choice and one is an arbitration clause.  Problems arise, and a fee dispute/legal malpractice counterclaim starts.  Will it be…

Reisner v. Litman & Litman PC is a motorcycle – car collision case in which plaintiff was driving his motorcycle in Nassau County. He was driving on a road that had become known to be dangerous.  At this particular intersection there had been a large number of turning left accidents, which later was said to be…

A series of loans, a single attorney in the transactions, a failure to file the mortgage, a defense that the clients should have filed the mortgage themselves, a loss of $ 750,000.  How can this happen to sophisticated lenders?

The question is not exactly answered, but the picture that emerges from Brija v. Fernandez …

The rapid transferring back and forth of rights and liabilities, through assignments, factoring and bankruptcy is highlighted in Maggioni v Clyde Meredith Schaefer, Esq., NY SlipOp 32544 [Sup.Ct. New York County, Wooten. J]   

Apparently IFT International Inc. was a worthwhile football.  It and its assets bounced back and forth between Bankruptcy Court and Supreme Court, with…

Gatto v Burke & Burke, NY Slip Op 32511, Nassau County, Justice Bucaria illustrates a two part transactional represent ion by attorneys of the clients in a  business sale case.  Facts are simple:  plaintiff sells restaurant to X and uses target attorneys as transactional counsel.  Sale documents do not have a security interest for Plaintiff-seller. …

An attorney must carefully and assiduously guard his client’s confidences, secrets and communications with the attorney.  This remains true until the attorney has to defend himself.  Must this defense be to criminal charges, or to ethical charges only?  The answer is set forth in a recently decided case in the First Department.Hélie v McDermott, …