We’ve asked in the past whether there is an institutional bias against legal malpractice cases. Self-regulation of industries ( the LIBOR, for example) often lacks any rigor. The legal world also, in a way, self regulates. It is after all, rules for attorneys, written by attorneys, administered and judged by attorneys. In Wiener v Epstein…

Defendants in this legal malpractice case argued that there was a missing party, and that the lack of privity between plaintiff and the defendant attorney was fatal.  They lost in Supreme Court, and on appeal, continued to lose.

Mr. San, LLC v Zucker & Kwestel, LLP   2013 NY Slip Op 08416   Decided on December…

This is a convoluted case, which started as a products liability-fall from a ladder- case, morphed into a legal malpractice case, went to trial and was prematurely dismissed during plaintiff’s case, was reversed on appeal and now comes back on a preclusion motion. The problem in Burbige v Siben & Ferber 2012 NY Slip Op…

The question of how a competent and qualified attorney would handle a case is the crux of Bua v Purcell & Ingrao, P.C. 2012 NY Slip Op 06908    Appellate Division, Second Department . At issue is whether attorney committed malpractice in the termination of a real estate contract of sale.

"The plaintiff commenced this…

There is nothing new in the case of Jack Hall Plumbing & Heating, Inc. v Duffy 2012 NY Slip Op 07249   Appellate Division, Third Department , merely a restatement of the long-standing and settled rule that expert opinion is required to show that there was / was not a departure from good and accepted practice.

We have mused on the eagerness with which Courts sometimes exhibit in granting early dismissal of legal malpractice cases, sometimes prematurely grappling with the "but for" portion of the case well before a good record is developed.  In Carter Ledyard & Millburn LLP v Pearl Seas Cruises, LLC  2013 NY Slip Op…

High end financing companies tailored to the art and antique world hit a bare patch, and suddenly are in $20 Million + financing difficulties.  They hire plaintiff law firm in the Hahn & Hessen LLP v Peck   2013 NY Slip Op 33017(U)  November 25, 2013  Sup Ct, New York County  Docket Number: 603122/08  Judge:…

Supreme Court and the Appellate Division sometimes are able to perform surgery on a complaint, allowing provable claims and damages to remain in play while the balance is excised.  Such is the case in Morad Assoc., LLC v Lee   2013 NY Slip Op 08204   Decided on December 10, 2013
Appellate Division, First Department.   
 …