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At The Capital
Divorce Bill Tries to Ease Delay Over Insurance
Thursday, May 8, 2008
The Legislature is trying for a second time to fashion a requirement that parties in divorce proceedings in New York understand that they could lose health insurance coverage when their marriages dissolve. A 2007 law establishing the requirement as §177 of the Domestic Relations Law has caused delay in thousands of divorce cases as courts seek information on the health insurance status of the spouses and get signatures on statements in which parties verify that they could lose coverage upon the granting of a divorce, according to state Supreme Court Justice Jacqueline W. Silbermann, the state's deputy chief administrative judge for matrimonial affairs.
Panel Finds Agency Lacks Power to Forgive Rent Arrears
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
It is outside the authority of the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal to forgive arrears on rent for rent-stabilized tenants who would face "undue hardship" if made to pay, the Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. The agency had defended its 2004 decision to waive nearly $19,000 in rent payments for tenant Dru Arstark as allowed through its equitable authority under the Rent Stabilization Code. The Court decided 5-2 that the division misinterpreted the law.
Free With Registration: Bill Would Modernize Court Protocols for Disaster Response
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote this morning on a bill to modernize and streamline the law regulating the response of the state and the Judiciary during times of war, "pestilence" and "public calamity" that prompts the uprooting of courts to locations where they can reconvene safely.
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
License Infractions, But No 'Homicide'
Friday, May 2, 2008
Violations of a driver's junior license do not establish the "morally blameworthy" conduct needed to elevate simple speeding to "dangerous" speeding for purposes of bringing a criminally negligent homicide charge, a divided Court of Appeals ruled yesterday.
Bill Would Add 39 Judges To Family Court Bench
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
The state Assembly's Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote tomorrow on a bill, long the subject of discussion and negotiation at the Capitol, to add 39 new Family Court judgeships statewide. The bill would create 14 judgeships on the Family Court bench in New York City and 25 elsewhere.
Scaffold Law Applied to Work Done Without Owner's Assent
Friday, April 25, 2008
A building owner is liable for a worker's injuries under the state's so-called Scaffold Law even when work was being performed for a tenant without the owner's knowledge and in violation of the tenant's lease, a divided Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. The Court also decided in two separate cases that real estate agents from the same brokerage firm can bid on behalf of different buyers for the same properties.
Free With Registration: Budget Cuts, Lower Interest Rates Harm Civil Legal Services Funding
Thursday, April 24, 2008
A record $15.3 million spent by New York state last year for civil legal services shrank to about $7.3 million in the 2008-09 budget adopted by the Legislature and Governor David A. Paterson earlier this month. At the same time, the other primary source of funding for civil legal services, the New York State Interest on Lawyer Account Fund, saw income shrink due to falling federal funds, interest rates and turmoil in the real estate industry.
Free With Registration: 'Libel Tourism' Bill Protecting Authors Passed by Legislators
Thursday, April 3, 2008
In response to a Court of Appeals ruling that declined to extend the reach of the state's long-arm statute, legislators voted unanimously this week for a bill that would protect authors and publishers in New York from libel judgments won by plaintiffs in foreign countries with standards that are less stringent than in the United States.
Law Guardian Cases Are Capped at 150
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Law guardians should not represent more than 150 children at one time, state court leaders decreed yesterday. An order signed by Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau established the first-ever caseload limits for law guardians, who represent children in neglect and child-abuse cases, foster care, juvenile delinquency and other cases in Family Court.
Limits on Warrantless Searches Of Body Cavities Are Defined
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Absent exigent circumstances, police must obtain a warrant before removing suspicious objects from the body cavities of suspects, a divided Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. Although the dissenters on the 4-3 panel warned of creating burdensome new requirements for drug investigators, the majority decided that precedents demanded additional Fourth Amendment protections for suspects subject to manual cavity searches.
Free: Paterson Would Set New Tone In Capital if Spitzer Resigns
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
David A. Paterson, a man seemingly with no enemies in Albany, would be a more even-tempered, less imperious alternative to Eliot Spitzer should Mr. Spitzer's connection to a high-priced prostitution ring cost him the governorship of New York. With even Republican opponents using words like "congenial" to describe the lieutenant governor, Mr. Paterson would represent a sea change in tone following more than 14 months of tough talk and hard feelings between Mr. Spitzer and the Legislature.
Free: Prostitution Report Weakens Spitzer
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Even before yesterday's apology by Governor Eliot Spitzer for engaging in conduct that he said violated his sense of "right and wrong," the second-year governor faced a burgeoning fiscal emergency and an openly hostile state Senate majority that is itself fighting for its political life.
Panel Slashes Longer Term Given After Murder Retrial
Monday, March 10, 2008
A judge's decision to sentence a defendant after a retrial to 15 more years in prison than he imposed following his original conviction on identical charges gave the appearance of "judicial vindictiveness" due to the defendant's successful appeal, an upstate appeals court ruled last week. In a separate case, the Appellate Division, Third Department, did not object to a tough sentence imposed by another judge where the defendant failed to follow the terms of a presentencing furlough.
Court Rules Filing Error Cannot Be Corrected
Monday, March 3, 2008
A 2007 law designed to reduce the number of actions dismissed in New York because of hyper-technical filing errors does not apply to the defect of cases being filed erroneously with County Court and Supreme Court clerks instead of county clerks, an appeals court has ruled.
Panel Faults Court's Removal Of Obese Child From Parents
Friday, February 29, 2008
Although the court acknowledged that the child's dietary habits while in her parents' care had not been "ideal," their efforts to control the weight of their daughter were made in good faith and did not justify a county agency's repeated removal of the girl from their custody, a Third Department panel ruled yesterday.
Panel Drops Preservation In Appeals Waiver Cases
Friday, February 22, 2008
The Appellate Division, Third Department, declared yesterday it was departing from its requirement that defendants challenging a waiver of appeal must preserve the issue for review by moving to withdraw their plea or by vacating the judgment of conviction against them. Also yesterday, the Third Department ordered a Family Court to hear from a law guardian who was "cut off" by a judge as he explained his objections to a custody arrangement.
Free With Registration: Derivative Lawsuits Approved for LLCs
Friday, February 15, 2008
A four-judge majority of the Court of Appeals held yesterday that English and American precedents dating back to the 18th century demand that members of limited liability corporations receive the same legal recourse as is available to corporate shareholders, allowing them to bring derivative suits on behalf of their LLCs, even though state law provides no explicit authorization for such actions.
Free With Registration: Terminated At-Will Workers Lose Bid to Press Tort Action
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Five investment managers do not have a fraudulent-inducement claim based on the Dreyfus Corporation's failure to tell them of a merger that ultimately cost them their jobs, the Court of Appeals decided Tuesday. In another ruling, the Court determined that res judicata barred an attempt by a bond guarantor to recoup more than $2 million it contended was improperly commingled with the other collateral liquidated in a decade-old bankruptcy case.
Free With Registration: Pilot Plan Puts Social Workers Into Brooklyn Family Court
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Family Court judges in Brooklyn, where caseloads average the highest-in-the-state at 1,300 per judge, will soon get help in managing their calendars. Five social workers will be hired to interview adults and children at the initiation of cases to determine the level of services needed by families, and coordinate the necessary paperwork and court appearances as cases progress.
Ruling Ends 6-Month AIDS-Phobia Cutoff
Friday, February 8, 2008
People enduring an anxiety-filled waiting period to find out if they have contracted the AIDS virus will no longer be limited to receiving damages for only six months' of emotional distress, the Court of Appeals held yesterday. Judge Victoria A. Graffeo wrote for the unanimous Court that the time limit "appears to be unprecedented in our common law tort jurisprudence" and is unfair to the victims of possible negligent exposure to AIDS who sometimes suffer for far longer than six month from "AIDS-phobia."
Free: Spitzer Names Three Justices To Third Department Bench
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Governor Eliot Spitzer yesterday appointed Justices E. Michael Kavanagh and Bernard J. Malone Jr. of the Appellate Division, First Department, to the Third Department, along with Supreme Court Justice Leslie E. Stein, who will sit on an appellate bench for the first time.
Free: Spitzer Ignores Court Issues In State of the State Message
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Governor Eliot Spitzer ignored the courts and criminal justice yesterday in a State of the State speech focused on jobs, education and, seemingly, patching up his fractured relationship with state lawmakers. The second-year governor conceded during a joint session of the Legislature that "our differences often attracted more attention than our agreements" during a rocky 2007.
City Unlawfully Adopted Laws On Reservoir Access, Panel Says
Thursday, December 27, 2007
A Third Department panel has held that the rules adopted last year on the recreational use of all lands, lakes and reservoirs owned by the city for water supply purposes needed approval from the Department of Health before the Department of Environmental Protection could act under the city's administrative code.
11-Person Jury's Verdict Upheld
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
The Court of Appeals yesterday abandoned one of its oldest precedents by deciding that a jury with fewer than 12 members can return a valid verdict in a criminal trial in New York state. The 5-2 ruling upheld Winston Gajadhar's conviction for murder and attempted robbery by an 11-member Manhattan Supreme Court jury. Mr. Gajadhar requested that the 11 jurors decide his case after a 12th juror was hospitalized three days into deliberations, but he subsequently appealed his conviction as unconstitutional.
Airlines Seek to Stop State Law for Travelers
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
A group representing major U.S. airlines is challenging in federal court a state law created after passengers were confined to aircraft during long winter-weather delays, sometimes without access to water or working toilets. Northern District Judge Lawrence E. Kahn will hear arguments today on the airline industry's motions for summary judgment or a preliminary injunction against the law.
High Court Rejects Indictment In N.Y. Over Ohio Testimony
Friday, December 14, 2007
The former chief executive of the Federated Department Stores cannot be prosecuted in Manhattan for the alleged perjured testimony he gave to the New York Attorney General's Office from the company's headquarters in Cincinnati, a divided Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick wrote for the majority in a ruling released on the same day she was confirmed for a new term on the Court by the state Senate.
Free: Staten Island District Approved
Friday, December 7, 2007
Legislators were planning to create six new permanent state Supreme Court judgeships as Governor Eliot Spitzer signed a measure this week creating a new judicial district for Staten Island. The newest district will be the smallest in the state. Once created, every borough in New York City will be its own judicial district.
Interviews Upheld In Malpractice Suits
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Defense attorneys may ask courts to waive medical confidentiality rules and allow them to conduct ex parte interviews with physicians about the treatment of plaintiffs involved in medical malpractice actions, the Court of Appeals ruled yesterday.
Two First Department Judges Are Moved to Albany Bench
Friday, November 23, 2007
Justices Bernard J. Malone Jr. and E. Michael Kavanagh of the Appellate Division, First Department, are being transferred to the Third Department in a temporary reassignment that could become permanent, depending on how Governor Eliot Spitzer fills upcoming openings on the Third Department bench.
Satmar Dispute Left To Congregations
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The Court of Appeals decided yesterday it would be intruding on matters of religious doctrine if it intervened in a bitter election dispute between two factions of the Satmar Hasidic community in Brooklyn. The court held that it could not rule without passing judgment on matters of faith spelled out in the congregation's bylaws, such as whether the plaintiffs properly follow the "ways of the Torah."
Error Cancels Plea, Split Court Decides
Friday, November 16, 2007
Pleas must be vacated for defendants who are not notified by sentencing judges that the plea-bargain agreements they are entering will entail a period of post-release supervision, a sharply divided state Court of Appeals ruled yesterday in a decision by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye. The Court also held yesterday that open-space restrictions established by municipalities in New York are binding on future purchasers of property.
