Many people feel that attorneys behaving badly is “par for the course” but we are fortunate to live in Upstate New York where the vast majority of the attorneys in the  legal community are hard-working, reasonable and ethical.  That’s not to say there aren’t some bad apples that make a bad name for everyone, but thankfully those attorneys are the exception rather than the rule.  Downstate New York is a different story and most of the reported decisions regarding attorney misconduct come from Downstate (for us Upstate New York folks, “downstate” is anywhere South of the Roscoe Diner!  :-)   A recent downstate case (New York County Supreme Court illustrates my point….. Read the rest…

Share on Facebook

Do you have a dispute with a local merchant, a neighbor, someone who did you wrong?  If so, you might be able to easily handle the dispute on your own without having to hire a lawyer!  Below are the nuts and bolts for handling a Small Claims Court matter in New York.  Since my office is in Elmira, I will use the Small Claims Court information in Elmira as my example but I will also provide information for other courts throughout the State of New York.

Read the rest…

Share on Facebook

Have you ever read about a million dollar verdict in a case and think that’s the end of the story and that the “lucky” plaintiff actually received the full amount that was awarded by the jury?  Think again….. Sadly for most people lucky enough to get a substantial verdict, the verdict is just the starting point in a second war to actually try to collect on the verdict.  Defendants rarely accept the jury’s decision without endless appeals contesting every element of the trial and the jury’s judgment.  And even worse, appellate courts routinely lower or even reverse the jury’s verdict substituting their judgment for the judgment of the jury that sat through the trial day after day and week after week.

A recent N.Y. case illustrates this point perfectly.  The newspaper headlines about the case publicized the $14 Million dollar verdict in the N.Y. medical malpractice case.  But the defendants appealed and the Appellate Court decided that a new trial was required.  Why?  The trial judge was allegedly too nice to the brain damaged plaintiff and to the jurors during this trial conducted at Christmas time.  Huh?  Isn’t a judge permitted to show basic civility and friendliness to the litigants and the jury?  No, says the Appellate Division, 2d Dept.  Keep reading for the gory details of this unfortunate case….

Read the rest…

Share on Facebook

You may wonder why we, as trial lawyers who have no intention of ever becoming a judge, care about a pay raise for N.Y. judges?  There are several good reasons: 

(1)  Good judges benefit EVERYONE.  Although everyone hopes that they will never have to enter a courtroom, if you do, the quality of the judge who hears your case will be very important to you and your case.

(2)  We all know that “You get what you pay for”.  We are not going to get good people serving as judges if they have to take a huge pay cut to take the job.

(3)  Fair is fair.  N.Y. judges have not received ANY pay raise in eight years!  That means not even a cost-of-living increase.  That’s just not fair.  Love or hate judges, I think everyone would agree that it’s not fair that someone’s real wages would effectively decline year after year. Read the rest…

Share on Facebook