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Legal Bytes: Is Airbnb coming to your neighborhood?
Airbnb’s #weaccept Super Bowl ad last month was seen as a response to Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration. However, in regard to Airbnb’s recent New York ad campaign, perhaps the hashtag should have been #acceptus. Since 2010, it has been illegal in New York to use a class A multiple dwelling for purposes other […]
Legal Bytes: Paul McCartney sues Sony to recover copyrights
Paul McCartney commenced an action against Sony / ATV Music Publishing, LLC and Sony ATV Tunes, LLC on Jan. 18 to regain ownership of copyrights in songs he composed individually or co-wrote with John Lennon from 1962 to 1971. The road from composing the songs to this lawsuit, however, is a long, winding one worth […]
New York adopts legislation to address vacant and abandoned foreclosures
For far too long, vacant and abandoned foreclosed homes have been a serious problem for citizens and public officials in New York. According to a recent study, vacant foreclosed homes number over 3,000 in the state of New York, trailing only New Jersey. One need not venture inside a property to see that it […]
New OT rule goes in effect Dec. 1 – or does it?
As most know by now, earlier this year the U.S. Department of Labor published its final rule updating the regulations governing whether executive, administrative, and professional employees are entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Under the current regulations, an employee who is classified under one of these exemptions is exempt from […]
Legal Bytes: The ‘voluntary tax’ revisited
In 1976 Harvard Law Professor A. James Casner, an acknowledged expert in estates, told the members of the House Ways and Means Committee: “In fact, we haven’t got an estate tax, what we have, you pay an estate tax if you want to; if you don’t want to, you don’t have to.” About three years […]
Legal Bytes: The tale of the kissing sailor
You never know when fame is going to strike. It could come as you walk across Broadway on August 14, 1945, snag a nurse in the middle of the Great White Way, lay a knee-bent kiss on her and photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt snaps a photograph of you that becomes one of the most iconic of […]
Legal Bytes: Researching social media for evidence (Part 2)
Last week I covered the first part of an opinion issued by the Colorado Bar Association Ethics Committee, Formal Opinion 127 (online: http://www.cobar.org/tcl/tcl_articles.cfm?articleid=9073). I discussed the committee’s conclusions regarding lawyers mining social media for evidence and then promised to address the second half of the opinion this week. So, today I’ll be covering the portion [&[...]
Legal Bytes: Enforcing employee restrictive covenants in Canada
Employers now routinely require employees to sign restrictive covenants as a condition of employment, prohibiting an employee from accepting employment with a competitor and from soliciting existing customers when the employment relationship terminates. While enforcement of these covenants in the United States is largely a matter of state law, over the past 20 years, U.S. […]
Legal Bytes: Bequests of firearms under the New York SAFE Act
If you have plans to leave your valuable gun to someone after you pass away, or hope to keep an heirloom in your family that falls within the definition of “firearm” under New York State Law, you may be setting your executor and the intended beneficiary up for criminal liability, and as a result, they […]
Legal Bytes: The continued evolution of bankruptcy petitions, schedules
Recently and perhaps in the Halloween spirit, I stumbled upon a link to Edgar Allen Poe’s 1842 bankruptcy filing. Despite his release of “The Murders In The Rue Morgue” a year earlier, the author was mired in debt and eager to take advantage of Congress’ recent enactment of the Bankruptcy Act of 1841. Although the […]
Legal Bytes: Who is a ‘joint employer’?
In a recent decision rendered in the context of a Union organizing campaign involving Browning Ferris Industries [i], a divided National Labor Relations Board has adopted a greatly expanded standard for determining who is a “joint employer” under the National Labor Relations Act. This decision will have wide-ranging consequences for franchisors, manufacturers and other businesses […]
Legal Bytes: Landlords, no-pet clauses and emotional support animals
I am often asked for advice by landlords who own a single apartment and property management groups who own multifamily apartment buildings alike, whether they need to accommodate a tenant’s request to have an emotional support animal in light of a no-pet policy at the premise. This has truly become a hot topic in landlord […]
Case Digests
- Fourth Department – Mental Hygiene Law: Charles L. v. State of New York
- Second Circuit – Medicaid and Medicare certification: U.S. ex rel. Quartararo v. Cath. Health Sys. Of Long Island Inc.
- Fourth Department – Waiver of indictment: People v. King
- Fourth Department – Speedy trial: People v. Jordan
- Fourth Department – Rosario material: People v. Dennard
- Second Circuit – Magnuson-Stevens Act: State of New York v. Raimondo
- Fourth Department – Plea: People v. Davis
- Second Circuit – Revocation of minimum sentence: Bangs v. Walter William Smith, et al.
- Fourth Department – Relation-back doctrine: CHS Inc. v. Land O’Lakes Purina Feed, et al.
- Fourth Department – Unlawful arrest: People v. Burke
- Fourth Department – Attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance: People v. Brown
- Second Circuit – Immigration: Paucar v. Garland
Law News
- N.Y. Court of Appeals reverses gun conviction
- NY board approves cannabis lawsuit settlements, paves way for retail dispensaries
- NY Court of Appeals reverses murder conviction because of illegal police search
- NY Court of Appeals reverses gun conviction over ineffective counsel
- Split court affirms gun conviction, finding search and arrest were legal
- NY appeals court vacates drug conviction over illegal police search
- Split Court of Appeals strips Police Accountability Board of disciplinary power
- Manslaughter conviction reversed after appeals court finds insufficient evidence
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