As recently reported, the United States Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in Delia v. EMA (briefs can be found here) on the issue of States recovering Medicaid expenses from the proceeds of a medical malpractice settlement. Continue Reading
First Department Finds That Quantification of Environmental Contaminants Necessary for Plaintiff To Survive Summary Judgment:
Posted in Toxic Torts
In Cleghorne, et. al. v. The City of New York, et. al., 2012 NY Slip Op. 06648 (1st Dept., October 4, 2012), the Appellate Division, First Department, dismissed Plaintiffs’ claims, granting summary judgment to the Board of Education of the City of New York (Board of Ed.), because Plaintiffs’ expert failed to quantify Plaintiffs’ exposure to allergens, which allegedly caused her asthma and because Plaintiffs’ expert failed to specify what level of exposure in general would cause the disease. Continue Reading
New York Courts Continue to Deem Social Networking Sites Discoverable
Posted in e-Discovery and Social Media, Media and the LawAs reported in the New York Law Journal, more and more New York courts have applied a liberal standard to the discoverability of a plaintiff’s social media information in personal injury or medical malpractice claims. How significant can a plaintiff’s social media information be to a case? In Romano v. Steelcase, a case venued in Suffolk County, the plaintiff’s MySpace and 
pages proved to be crucial. Continue Reading
Wrongful Death Suit Tossed for Staten Island Man Killed by Pit Bulls
Posted in General LiabilityRecently, a Staten Island judge found that the City had no “special duty” to protect a dog bite victim and held the City not liable for damages to the family of a 90-year-old man who died as a result of injuries by two dogs.
Recently, Staten Island Supreme Court Judge Thomas Aliotta dismissed a $7 million lawsuit against the City filed by the family of a 90-year-old man who was killed by two dogs in Port Richmond. In doing so, he ruled that the City had no “special duty” to protect Henry Piotrowski from the dogs that eventually killed him, even though several 911 calls were made about the unleashed dogs, and that “Absent a special relationship, a municipality may not be held liable for injuries caused by a breach of a duty owed to the public at large, e.g., to provide police protection.”
To the public eye, this may seem unjust; however, an analysis reveals and brings an understanding to the end result. Continue Reading
Jay A. Rappaport Best Lawyers’ Product Liability “Lawyer of the Year.”
Posted in Announcements
Congratulations to Jay A. Rappaport for being named the Best Lawyers’ 2013 New York City Product Liability Litigation – Defendants “Lawyer of the Year,” a recognition received by Robert S. Deutsch in 2012.
Nine ARFD partners named to 2013 edition of The Best Lawyers in America
Posted in Announcements, UncategorizedARFD is proud to announce the inclusion of nine of its partners in the 2013 edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Medical Malpractice Defense; Personal Injury Defense; Product Liability Defense; and, Health Care Law.
Congratulations to:
Mark J. Aaronson (Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury Defense)
Jay A Rappaport (Medical Malpractice, Personal Injury and Product Liability Defense)
Robert S. Deutsch (Medical Malpractice, Personal Injury and Product Liability Defense)
Robert S. Melnick (Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury Defense)
Nicholas J. Marotta (Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury Defense)
Richard V. Caplan (Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury Defense)
Nancy L. Pennie (Personal Injury Defense)
Barbara A. Ryan (Health Care Law)
Robert J. Cecala (Personal Injury Defense)
Social Media and the Law – Evolving and Inconsistent
Posted in e-Discovery and Social Media
As of June 2012, Twitter had over 500 million users and Facebook had 955 million active users monthly. If you’re reading this blog, you likely have an account with either these services, or any number of other social networking sites. As technology progresses, more and more individuals use these sites daily. With the growing threat of identity theft, these services adapt their privacy settings to allow users to protect and shield their activity and personal information from the public at large. But what does that mean to the Courts? Continue Reading
Lawyers, Jurors and Social Media: Let’s Not Be Friends (New York City Bar Association Opinion)
Posted in e-Discovery and Social Media
The New York City Bar Association, within a recent ethics opinion, addressed the issue of whether an attorney is permitted to access social media websites to investigate the backgrounds of potential jurors and to monitor jurors’ activities during a trial. In seeking to balance an attorney’s interest to conduct juror background research with the ethical prohibition against ex parte communication between lawyer and juror, the opinion strikes a reasonable compromise that satisfies both competing interests, yet takes into account the realities of today’s wired world. Continue Reading
Public Tweets Can Be Subject to Subpoena
Posted in e-Discovery and Social Media
According to Criminal Court Judge Matthew Sciarrino, Jr., users of Twitter who post public tweets may find their user information can be obtained in a case against them.
As reported in The New York Law Journal:
“The Constitution gives you the right to post, but as numerous people have learned, there are still consequences for your public posts. What you give to the public belongs to the public. What you keep to yourself belongs only to you,” Criminal Court Judge Matthew Sciarrino Jr., sitting in Manhattan, wrote in People v. Harris, 2011NY080152. Continue Reading
Five ARFD defense verdicts in five weeks!
Posted in AnnouncementsCongratulations to Barry Schreiber, Robert Deutsch, Daniel Nessim, Phil Lerner and Craig Fenno for obtaining five defense verdicts in four different New York counties over a period of five weeks in June and July!
- Barry obtained a defense verdict in a wrongful death matter in Kings County, NY;
- Robert then achieved a defense verdict in 30 minutes in New York County, NY;
- Dan completed the ‘hat trick’ by obtaining ARFD’s third defense verdict of June in a wrongful death matter in Bronx County, NY;
- Phil received a defense verdict in Queens County, NY 6/20/12, making four defense verdicts in the month of June for ARFD.
- Shorty thereafter, in early July, Craig achieved ARFD’s 2nd Kings County DV, the 5th ARFD defense verdict since June 1st, in a malpractice matter where the plaintiff asked the jury to award three million dollars.
To put this in perspective, in 2011 there were a total of only 126 malpractice cases tried to veridct in the entire New York City Region.