IN THE NEWS: $1.25 Million Malpractice Verdict Against Immigration Lawyer Upheld
A panel of the New York Court of Appeals has let stand a $1.25 million verdict against an immigration attorney in a legal malpractice action. The court affirmed judgment on the plaintiff's claim that his attorney's negligence resulted in a deportation order and the failure to vacate it due to bad advice that plaintiff not personally appear as part of a purported strategy to "buy time" in his immigration case. The court also ruled that the defendant's argument that the damages awarded for the harm resulting from plaintiff's 14 months in detention constitute non-pecuniary damages that are not recoverable in a legal malpractice action was unpreserved.