A woman who lost a fee dispute case against her divorce lawyer is entitled to a new trial because the attorney repeatedly brought up the fact that the client’s malpractice action had been dismissed, the Appellate Division, 3rd Department, held last week.

The court said the lack of sufficiently curative instructions may well have confused the jury and misled it into concluding that the quality of the lawyer’s services was no longer an issue since the legal malpractice claim had been dismissed.