Litigation

Just a week apart, in late November and early December 2009, the Court of Appeals and then the Appellate Division, First Department, made major pronouncements on the authority of the courts to review determinations that ]property is subject to condemnation for allegedly public purposes.

Calling New York's failure to institute no-fault divorce "inexcusable," a Manhattan judge has concluded that a husband should not be held liable for perjury for claiming he had not had sex with his wife for more than a year, during which time she gave birth.

Unsuccessful 50/50 joint ventures often lead to disputes between the partners and, in some cases, may produce noteworthy judicial decisions. Such is the case with Lola Cars International Limited v. Krohn Racing, LLC, et al. in which the Delaware Court of Chancery recently refused to dismiss claims arising out of a deadlocked joint venture structured as a limited liability company ("LLC"),

Courts of appeal historically affirm more than 85% of all trial court Daubert decisions. Trial courts will get it right the first time if you follow this tried-and-true checklist.

Recent rulings of interest.

A pair of recent Supreme Court cases built upon the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause, Crawford v. Washington and Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, have given criminal defense attorneys potent new weapons to challenge forensic evidence proffered by the government

Knowledge of Royalty Settlement Starts Malpractice Limitations Period

During the life of any case, there will likely be valuable information obtained from the Internet that will be used at deposition or trial. Commonly, the proponent of online evidence will present a screen shot of the Web page, which was either downloaded as a .pdf or printed directly from the Web site. The process is like taking a photograph of the image as it appears on the monitor. In general, this captures not only the look, but also the download date and the URL. If proper steps are not taken to admit the evidence, the value of this information may be lost.