Labor Law Cases which arise from construction accidents often have large numbers attached to them.  After all, people can get really hurt when they fall on a construction site.  So was the situation in Doviak v Lowe’s Home Ctrs., Inc.  2015 NY Slip Op 09333  Decided on December 17, 2015  Appellate Division, Third Department.

The…

Imagine that Wife owns a co-operative apartment and has some undefined problems there. Litigation ensues, and at a settlement conference her husband, who is not a party, is escorted from the robing room because of disruptive conduct.  Rather than simply remain calm, or fume, husband, who has a rich history of litigating frivolous issues, sues…

The retaining lien, a powerful tool for attorneys to force payment of legal fees, is but one of a number of strategies in the eternal attorney fee dispute world.  MG v RG  2015 NY Slip Op 51851(U)  Decided on December 10, 2015  Supreme Court, Kings County Adams, J. is an example of the lengths to…

As happens from time to time, outlier Appellate Division decisions give rise to a new rule of law, which sometimes does not make sense.  The question of when a party has to disclose experts is unique in NY law.  Corresponding Federal practice has rigid discovery dates, preclusion if the expert is not disclosed, depositions of…

Legal malpractice cases are subject to a level of scrutiny greater than all other cases in the “but for” determination.  That’s built into the legal malpractice world along with the privity rule and is there for social policy reasons.  If it were not, then every case, whether lost by plaintiff or defendant would immediately morph…

Few Judiciary Law 487 claims survive the rugged course of litigation and make it over the last hurdle.  Here, in Ginsburg Dev. Cos., LLC v Carbone  2015 NY Slip Op 09250  Decided on December 16, 2015 Appellate Division, Second Department the Second Department affirmed Supreme Court and left the JL 487 claim for trial.  Interestingly,…

One of the defining characteristics of professional malpractice, which differs from negligence as a whole, is the concept of privity.  If a washing machine is negligently designed, anyone hurt in using the machine can sue.  However, in professional and legal malpractice one may sue only those with whom they have a professional relationship, one of…

We had not considered the question of how a bench trial and a jury trial might differ in the use of experts.  Remembering that an expert is necessary when the experience of an ordinary trier of fact does not encompass the issues, we recently ran across Oikonomos, Inc. v Bahrenberg
2015 NY Slip Op 51300(U)…