The article, “Split Personal Injury Trials Not A Rule, Upending ‘Presumption in favor of Bifurcation,” in the  Sept. 20 edition of the New York Law Journal distorts the import of Presiding Justice Alan D. Scheinkman’s decision for the Second Department in Castro v. Malia Realty LLC, handed down on September 11, 2019.

The article also has an uncustomary plaintiffs’ bar slant misleading the bench and bar. The Castro decision does not upend the ‘presumption’ as the title of the article suggests. The opening sentence of the article, “In a written opinion that could have major implications for personal injury trials throughout the Second Department for years to come,” sets the stage in misdirecting the reader.