Ex-Client Sues Divorce Lawyer, Says He Went Easy on Her Spouse Due to Advance 'Understanding'
A New York judge has given the green light to a legal malpractice case filed by a divorced woman who says the prominent attorney she was told to choose by her then-husband went easy on him in the matrimonial litigation.
While Lisa Blumencranz has not proven her allegations against her divorce attorney, Allan Botter of Galasso Langione Catterson & LoFrumento in Long Island, she is not required to do so at this stage of the Nassau County case, said Supreme Court Justice Joel Asarch.
Blumencranz claims that Botter, as a result of an “understanding” with her husband, who also paid Botter’s legal bills directly, gave her “wholly unprofessional, inadequate and detrimental representation,” reports the New York Law Journal.
She says he failed to get appraisals of various assets and “belittled and demeaned” her, reducing her to tears at every meeting.
In an interview with the legal publication, Botter called the allegations in the suit “totally false” and “totally unfounded” and said this is the first lawsuit ever brought against him in more than 50 years of practice.
“Her case was settled for sums of money which are extremely substantial,” said Botter of his client’s result in the divorce case. “Her ingratitude is unbelievable.”
Botter, who is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, previously served as vice president of its New York chapter.
The judge dismissed a breach of contract count against Botter, saying it was duplicative of the malpractice claim, as well as two emotional distress counts, saying that the alleged misconduct was not sufficiently outrageous to sustain them.
Blumencranz is seeking $4 million in damages.
