Consequential and General Damages Explained
A claim for legal malpractice has been made, and damages in a commercial setting are alleged. How does one prove them, what are the rules and what is the difference between general and consequential...
View ArticleThe Work Was Fine, and I’m Not Your Attorney Anyway
Seaman v Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP 2019 NY Slip Op 07510 Decided on October 17, 2019 Appellate Division, First Department illustrates to bedrock principles of legal malpractice. The first is that...
View ArticleThe Footnotes Alone Are Worth The Read
How does a release work and what are its limits? This is the question that Avnet, Inc. v Deloitte Consulting LLP 2019 NY Slip Op 33026(U) October 11, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket...
View ArticleAn Illegal Roof Deck and Legal Malpractice
What is an attorney at a real estate closing required to do and when does a failure to do so bleed into legal malpractice? Mah v 40-44 W. 120th St. Assoc., LLC, 2019 NY Slip Op 33071(U) October 10,...
View ArticleLaying Low and Riding Coat Tails
Incarceration for not paying child support is unusual but certainly not unheard of. This case illustrates the defense strategy of receding into the background and waiting while the controversy swirls...
View ArticleThe Collateral Estoppel Trap in Legal Fee Claims
An attorney sues the client for legal fees. Client has two choices. Resist the fee claim on its merits (overbilled,work not performed, work not contemplated in contract) or add a claim for legal...
View ArticleA Mixed Outcome
It is ironic when attorney errors harm an otherwise good legal malpractice case. Leeder v Antonucci 2019 NY Slip Op 05898 [174 AD3d 1469] July 31, 2019 Appellate Division, Fourth Department is an...
View ArticleThe Limited Retainer and Its Consequences
One might think that if you hire an attorney to do a certain task, then the attorney is simply required to meet the generally accepted standard of practice in completing that task. That assumption is...
View ArticleA Massive Theft and the Reckoning
When the law firm’s financial officer steals $ 4M+ from the escrow accounts, there are bound to be some unhappy people. It is even worse when the law firm’s financial officer is the brother of the...
View ArticleThis Rule is Very Flexible
When does representation by an attorney end? Is it when there is friction between client and attorney? Is it when the attorney unilaterally withdraws? Is it when the attorney is granted a withdrawal...
View ArticleContinuous Representation is Very Judge-Centric
As we discussed on Friday, how and when “continuous representation” is applied depends more on the judge or appellate panel hearing the case than on time-honored well-understood rules. Schrull v Weis...
View ArticleLegal Malpractice For An Illegal Condo
Legal malpractice comes up in any number of underlying settings. In NYC real estate, zoning and building department violations are frequent contenders for legal action, hence frequent contenders in...
View ArticleLost Before It Began
Many cases are lost, across the spectrum of legal issues, for procedural issues. It is especially poignant to see a legal malpractice case lost on service of process issues. Gengo v Storms 2019 NY...
View ArticleA Massive Fraud, Yet Too Late To Sue
This multi-million dollar fraud led to convictions and a claim against Katten Muchin. Nevertheless, too much time has gone by and Katten is off the hook. Wimbledon Financing Master Fund, Ltd. v...
View ArticlePoaching Clients and Deceit
Personal injury law is rife with violations of the Judiciary Law. Cases over the years have identified “runners” who go to accident sites and hospital ERs to get clients, payments of cash to clients,...
View ArticleTo Cure A Default A Reasonable Excuse and a Meritorious Defense Must Be Shown
There is nothing new about the requirement that a defendant show both a reasonable excuse for the default as well as a meritorious defense to the action when seeking to vacate a default judgment....
View ArticleEstates, Legal Malpractice and Standing
Legal malpractice issues, and definitely attorney-client privilege issues arise in Estates. They can come up prior to death, by virtue of the death or afterwards, but in each instance there is a...
View ArticleA Short Tutorial in “Effectively Compelled To Settle”
May plaintiff sue the former attorney after settling the underlying case? It depends on whether plaintiff was effectively compelled to settle the underlying case or not. This differs from a situation...
View ArticleThe Basics of Legal Malpractice
We’re proud to announce that the New York Law Journal published out Outside Counsel column entitled “The Basics of Legal Malpractice” today. We hope you enjoy. “The term “legal malpractice” is loosely...
View ArticleDefault, Bankruptcy and Legal Malpractice Make For a Very Complicated Situation
Judge Billings untangles a complicated web of courts, causes and conclusions in Alphas v Smith 2019 NY Slip Op 33427(U) November 15, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 155790/2015....
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