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Recent Articles from Paul Leclair
Advocate’s View: Suing employees for negligence?
The client was furious. While making a delivery, his employee of many years was involved in a trucking accident. No one was injured, and the accident did not cause third-party property damage. The driver had driven off the road over the river and into the woods. The accident destroyed the manufactured products of an entire […]
Advocate’s View: Forging ahead to the future despite serious personal problems
Attorneys help their clients forge a path to the future, and nothing is as affirming as when a client says their attorney gave them hope in what was an otherwise indecipherable dilemma. Helping people with problems is what attorneys do. Sometimes, though, attorneys have their own serious problems and are unable to find their way. […]
Advocate’s View: Significance of getting transcripts signed by a witness
For the litigating attorney, there are many piece parts to keep track of in preparing for trial, but one to include in an attorney’s check-list for state court trial preparation is the obligation of CPLR 3116. A litigator must contend with the simple requirement that a deposition must be submitted to a witness for review […]
Advocate’s View: No employment at-will exception for compliance officer
The employment at-will doctrine withstood another challenge. Last week on May 8, the New York Court of Appeals affirmed the First Department and rendered a decision refusing to create an employment at-will exception for a corporate compliance officer who complained of security trade irregularities to the security firm’s principal, Sullivan v. Harnisch, 2012 NY Lexis […]
Advocate’s View: Attorney fee applications and Dante’s ‘Inferno’
Making an attorney fee application causes me considerable angst. Even though the application comes on the heels of a successful outcome, it is too personal. While the primary litigation is certainly a test of an attorney’s substantive knowledge, experience and strategic acumen ...
Advocate’s View: Affirmative Defense: How hard can it be?
While drafting answers to a complaint, identifying affirmative defenses often has been nothing more than a brainstorming session and a quick run through pleadings forms to be sure that you included all those that may apply.
Advocate’s View: Two ethical issues for attorneys
Very interesting facts in a recent Appellate Division, Fourth Department case call into play certain ethical obligations to which litigators must always pay heed in their practices.
A lovers’ … er, fiduciaries’ quarrel
Chalk one up to Lord Byron’s adage that truth is stranger than fiction. In a case involving a former husband and wife, the New York State Court of Appeals recently rendered a decision finding the defendant wife presented facts sufficient to raise an issue of fact that her plaintiff husband, then “paramour,” secured a mortgage […]
Upon further consideration …
On May 5, the New York State Court of Appeals reversed the Appellate Division, Fourth Department in the Article 78 case of Matter of Infante, as Administrator of Estate of Rosemary Infante v. Dignan, MD, Medical Examiner, __NY2d__, 2009 WL 1181328. My Nov., 20, 2008 column in this space concerned the then-recent Fourth Department decision […]
An instructive Article 78 decision to live by
A recent Fourth Department decision, with two justices dissenting, reminds litigation attorneys of the difficult standards of review that govern in Article 78 proceedings, but also of the need to zealously take every opportunity to present facts that put a client in the most favorable light despite those standards. The reminder sharpens an attorney’s approach […]
Pleading fraud against individual defendants
On May 8, the New York State Court of Appeals rendered a 4-2 decision in Pludeman v. Northern Leasing Systems Inc., holding that the requirements of CPLR 3016(b) — a litigant must specifically plead a cause of action in fraud against those affiliated with a business organization — may be satisfied against individual defendants when […]
The use of alternative measures of damage
Preparing a party’s financial damages claim for trial can be an anxiety-provoking experience. In a non-personal injury setting involving financial damages, there are many issues. Some critical ones include the appropriate measure of damages, the tension between using your client or an expert witness to explain the financial harm your client endured, and the use […]
Case Digests
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Review of another judge’s actions: Opinion 22-153
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Charitable contributions: Opinion 22-150
- Second Circuit – Class action settlement: Moses v. The New York Times Company
- Fourth Department – Breach of contract: Hausrath Landscape Maintenance Inc. v. Caravan Facilities Management LLC
- Second Circuit – New York Child Victim’s Act: Kane v. Mount Pleasant CSD; Coe v. Eastport Union Free School
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Appointing law clerk: Opinion 22-149
- Fourth Department – Bill of particulars: Harris v. Rome Memorial Hospital, et al.
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Accusations against co-judge: Opinion 22-148
- Fourth Department – Medicaid: Washington Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Home v. NYS Dept. of Health
- Fourth Department – Criminal possession of a firearm: People v. Wilson
- Fourth Department – Promoting prostitution: People v. Watts
- Second Circuit – Class certification: Arkansas Teachers Retirement System V. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Law News
- Fourth Department affirms $400K judgment in contract dispute
- Could legislation limiting non-compete agreements kick off a new era of workplace disputes?
- Fourth Department affirms decision in NY property dispute
- Greenlight Networks selects Buffalo-based attorney as general counsel
- Barclay Damon hires attorney Matt Smith
- Rochester man sues Geneseo police, alleging false arrest, assault
- The Daily Record’s Power List for Intellectual Property 2023
- NY ethics panel says judges can join NRA
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