Legal Question in Personal Injury in New York

Please confirm for me whether this is true or not. After much persistence I succeeded in getting the Grievance Committee (in Hauppage, 10th Judicial District) to issue a Letter of Caution to my former attorney. (He never apprised me of the specificity of a $93,000 lien on my settlement and that it would severely impact my settlement check.) I took him to Small Claims Court yesterday thinking this would be my main ammunition and it was objected to and sustained as "not being disclosable" and "confidential". Is this true? The judge would not take it from me and read it, but he did informally ask the attorney what it was about to which he played it down as "not a disciplinary action". Once again I am miffed with the Grievance Committee for not advising me of this and I spent 4 long hours waiting for my case to be called. The judge also seemed to have no clue about the Professional Code of Client Rights which comes right off the Bar Assn website as well as the nycourts.gov website and the merits of that were also shot down.


Asked on 10/02/14, 2:05 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
SHAHRIAR KASHANIAN LAW OFFICES OF SHAHRIAR KASHANIAN, ESQ.,

The Grievance Committee's action is but one angle on your proof of non-disclosure and incompetence against your attorney. Your action is for malpractice, i.e., proof that your case was worth far more than it was settled for and that your attorney's failure to further compromise your lien adversely affected your recovery. This is a very high bar to overcome. Small Claims Court is definitely not the venue to even consider your case, let alone rule on it.

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Answered on 10/02/14, 3:32 pm
Rahul Manchanda, Esq. Manchanda Law Office PLLC

Hello:

Please call me at (212) 968-8600 or toll-free at (800) 750-1828.

Kind regards,

RDM

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Answered on 10/12/14, 10:04 am


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