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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Attorney Claims Former Judge Did Him Wrong

BROOKLYN (CN) - A former judge who was ousted for looting a relative's estate neglected 85 percent of his cases assigned to him as an independent contractor, the attorney who hired him claims in court.

Kings County Supreme Court Judge Michael J. Garson avoided prison time after agreeing to resign from the New York State bar in 2008 after pleading guilty to bilking an aunt's estate, according to the complaint in Kings County Supreme Court. He was ordered to surrender his license for at least five years.

Attorney Norman S. Langer claims in a pro se lawsuit that Garson contacted him about work, asking to be retained as an independent contractor, not as a member of the firm.

Langer claims he hired Garson to perform limited services, such as interviewing new clients, but that Garson "spent most of his time either out of the office or planning vacations on the office computer and disregarding whatever duties were assigned to him."

Langer claims the former judge was never reinstated to the bar, "although he made repeated statements that he filed the necessary documents to be reinstated as an attorney in New York State," according to the complaint.

Langer says Garson failed to follow through and perform services for clients, and that 85 percent of the cases assigned to him over a three-year period lacked follow-through. That has put his firm at risk of malpractice lawsuits, Langer says, adding that he has since fired Garson.

"The facts and circumstances would indicate that the conduct of the defendant was deliberate and intended to harm the plaintiff to cause malpractice suits to be instituted against the plaintiff, which would enure to the benefit of the defendant," the lawsuit states.

Langer demands $250,000 in damages.

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