The case is captioned Kalomakls Management v. Lawrence & Walsh, P.C., 2018 NY Slip Op 00282. The plaintiff filed an arbitration proceeding against a contractor who worked on the renovation of Plaintiff’s diner. The Defendant law firm represented the plaintiff during that trial. The arbitrator ruled in favor of the contractor…
The case is Millman v. Blatt & Dauman, 2018 NY Slip Op 30016(U). The plaintiff sued his former divorce attorney and his accountant for providing allegedly faulty tax advice that he should file a joint return with his wife. Because the plaintiff alleged that he relied on the advice of the…
The case is DePalma v. Maya Murphy, 16 cv 8933, from the Southern District of New York. The relevant opinion is dated December 1, 2017. The plaintiff, Carol DePalma, sued her former divorce attorney and the court-appointed financial expert. This post will deal with the claims against the financial expert.…
After his divorce case concluded Lancaster sued his former attorney for malpractice. The claim included allegations of fraudulent billing and other claims. The lawyer raised the defense of res judicata. Res judicata is a phrase borrowed from Latin which bars a litigant from re-litigating a claim that was previously litigated…
This is a divorce malpractice case where a lawyer allegedly failed to timely appeal a divorce judgment against his client. His client (Ex-Husband) claimed that the failure to appeal constituted legal malpractice. The Georgia courts disagreed. The holding: even though the lawyer missed the deadline to appeal, there was no…
This issue comes up every now and then. An attorney files a collection lawsuit against a client and obtains a judgment against the client. (Here the client did not appear and a default judgment was entered). Later, the client reviews the attorney’s work and files a legal malpractice lawsuit. May the…
In this case, the Minnesota Court of Appeals holds that a client’s executor has standing to pursue a legal malpractice claim against an estate planning attorney. Gordon Savoie sought estate planning advice from a law firm. That law firm prepared an estate plan for him. Upon his death, a bank…
Some lawyers include arbitration clauses in their agreements with their clients. In this unpublished decision, the Third Circuit upheld an arbitration clause and rejected a challenge that the clause was prohibited by New Jersey law. Source: Smith v. Lindemann, Court of Appeals, 3rd Circuit 2017 – Google Scholar
When you sue a lawyer for a breach of the standard of care, you must prove proximate causation. If the underlying matter, was a lawsuit, you must show that, but for the negligence, you would have won the case. Here, the lawyer was hired to pursue a lawsuit for insurance…
In this matter, a typical drug prosecution, the record reflected that county prosecutors supported the reelection campaign of a judge. Did that support create an obligation, on the part of the judge, to recuse himself from cases in which those lawyers appeared? The trial court and the Indiana Court of…