This piece summarizes several significant civil procedure decisions handed down by the New York Court of Appeals during its 2017-2018 term. Given the space limitations, we have addressed only a portion of the holdings in this arena in a somewhat abbreviated manner. There is something here for both the personal injury lawyer and the commercial litigator, and even some important caselaw for transactional lawyers. Our selections emphasize those decisions that are most relevant to everyday practice in the Empire State. Readers searching for a further discussion of these decisions and other recent developments in New York civil practice, including decisions from various other courts, will want to review the biannual supplement to David D. Siegel & Patrick M. Connors, New York Practice (Thomson, 6th ed. 2018), which was released in July.

Disclosure of Materials on Social Media

In personal injury litigation, social networking sites often contain a treasure trove of relevant information and dozens of reported decisions have addressed disclosure disputes involving the production of such material, with most focused on disclosure of Facebook postings. See Siegel & Connors, New York Practice §344. The Court of Appeals had its first opportunity to address the disclosure of materials posted on a plaintiff’s Facebook page in Forman v. Henkin, 30 N.Y.3d 656 (2018).