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When I last wrote about unmissable deadlines, I described CPLR and NYCRR provisions setting deadlines that normally can’t be forgiven. If you’re defending a state court action, there’s another deadline you must remember: the 30-day deadline to remove an action ...

Tagged with: Advocate's View Jeremy M. Sher

Trials are clashes of ideas and attitudes. Attorneys condense complex theories into characterizations and themes. Jurors consider what witnesses do on the stand in addition to what they say. But the jury’s memory of arguments and testimony can be fleeting. ...

Tagged with: Advocate's View Jeremy M. Sher

You would think that a judgment always comes from a judge, and in most cases they do. But the CPLR gives plaintiffs several ways to obtain a money judgment directly from the county clerk.  These CPLR provisions bypass the judge ...

Tagged with: Advocate's View Jeremy Sher

Adjournments and extensions are routine in New York litigation. Return dates are postponed, scheduling orders are amended, and discovery deadlines are forgiven.  But deadlines can only be extended if the parties or the court have the authority to change them.  ...

In the last Advocate’s View article, my colleague Stacey Trien offered her perspective as an experienced Florida litigator who recently began practicing in New York. This article continues Ms. Trien’s theme of highlighting some of the more unusual aspects of ...

Tagged with: Advocate's View Jeremy M. Sher

The federal False Claims Act grants the government (or a private party suing on the government’s behalf) the right to seek damages vastly exceeding what is normally available in a fraud action. Enacted in 1863 to combat fraud by government ...

Tagged with: Advocate's View False Claims Act

The Court of Appeals’ 4-3 decision in Biotronik A.G. v. Conor Medsystems Ireland, Ltd., 22 N.Y.3d 799 (Mar. 27, 2014), raises new questions about pursuing lost profits in a breach of contract action. Biotronik held that, based on the contract ...

Tagged with: Advocate's View Jeremy M. Sher

BDO Seidman v. Hirshberg remains the leading New York authority on enforcing post-employment restrictive covenants — contracts that prevent an employee from competing with his employer after leaving his job, 93 N.Y.2d 382 (1999). Now approaching its 15th anniversary, BDO ...

Tagged with: Advocate's View Jeremy M. Sher

CPLR Article 31 governs the production of documents in a person’s “possession, custody or control,” CPLR 3111 (production of materials at deposition); CPLR 3120(1)(i) (production in response to a notice to produce or subpoena duces tecum). A person responding to ...

Tagged with: Advocate's View Jeremy M. Sher

The costs of collecting, reviewing and producing documents in response to document requests or subpoenas can be significant. In some circumstances, a court may require the party requesting the documents to pay some of these costs. The availability of cost-shifting ...

Tagged with: Advocate's View Jeremy M. Sher

The Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA) sent subscribers an email newsletter containing a photograph of a man dumping leaves at a compost site. This innocuous act led to a Fourth Department decision, Irwin v. OCRRA, 72 AD3d 314 (2010), ...

Tagged with: Advocate's View Jeremy M. Sher

At deposition, opposing counsel abruptly asks your client whether his company circulated a litigation hold notice to its employees. “I instructed everyone to preserve their documents,” he responds. “Did anyone put that instruction in writing?” asks opposing counsel. Based on ...

Tagged with: Advocate's View