Every litigator in New York knows that motions for summary judgment are a commonly employed tactic. Yet despite its routine nature, practitioners can fall prey to making common procedural errors when either filing such a motion or defending against one.
The New York playbook is found in the language of CPLR 3212, which says that summary judgment should be granted “if…upon all the papers and proof submitted, the cause of action or defense shall be established sufficiently to warrant the court as a matter of law in directing judgment in favor of any party.”1 Thus, the objective from the get-go for the moving party is to make sure that it can establish a cause of action or a defense as a matter of law.
