Litigation

Key happenings in neighboring states.

In what was apparently the first trial of a contested no-fault divorce under New York's recently enacted Domestic Relations Law, Suffolk County Acting Supreme Court Judge James F. Quinn declared a 56-year marriage irretrievably broken and granted the plaintiff wife's request for divorce.

In 2009 the Court of Appeals articulated a new rule for Family Law practitioners, referred to by some as the "don't look back" rule. The court in Buntzman simply did not want courts reviewing economic decisions made during the course of a marriage, or attempting to adjust for the fact that certain payments made from separate property may have benefited both spouses ' or even the non-titled spouse alone.

The latest you need to know.

Several items of interest.

Last month, the authors began a discussion of the crucial role non-party physicians often play in medical malpractice cases. Here, they look at some methods for obtaining the evidence they possess.

In what may be a national first, an appellate panel in Rochester, NY, has rejected as scientifically invalid a standard defense in obstetrical medical malpractice cases.

Obstetricians should examine their states' legal requirements about informed consent when making decisions about when to speak to patients about planned cesarean delivery in the face of evidence suggesting an increased risk of shoulder dystocia during delivery.