Oral argument of an appeal is often an appellate attorney's most fun moment in a case. You've labored over lengthy briefs on the issues at hand, thought about how you want the appellate court to decide your case, and pored over the briefs and record for hours creating an iron clad argument that will tip …
New York Daily Fantasy Sports Suit: What Happens When an Amicus Isn’t Actually a Friend of the Court
It isn't often that New York appellate courts deny someone the right to submit an amicus brief in a pending appeal. It happens, but it's rare. In fact, the only time that I remember seeing a New York appellate court turn away a proposed amicus brief was when the proposed amicus had a direct financial …
New York Daily Fantasy Sports Suit: The Amici Bring an Interesting Twist to Whether DFS Violates the NY Constitution’s Ban on Gambling
The State and the Plaintiffs aren't the only ones who want to be heard on whether the New York Interactive Fantasy Sports Law violates New York's constitutional ban on gambling. And New York courts are happy to hear their opinions. In White v Cuomo, three parties have sought and been granted leave to file amici …
NY Daily Fantasy Sports Suit: Plaintiffs Argue that a Rose is a Rose and DFS is Gambling, Notwithstanding the Legislature’s Attempt to Say Otherwise
What kind of world do we live in, the Plaintiffs in White v Cuomo want to know in their constitutional challenge to New York's Interactive Fantasy Sports Law that authorized and regulated daily fantasy sports games in New York for the first time. "[A] Shakespearean world inhabited by Romeo and Juliet where substance trumps form, and a rose …
Court of Appeals Holds Commercial Contracts Can Waive Right to Seek Declaratory Judgment to Interpret the Terms of the Agreement and Yellowstone Relief
Contracts are often ambiguous. They are usually long, with many terms, and you never know how they will apply in circumstances that the parties never contemplated. That's why the power to go to court to ask for an interpretation of the agreement and how it applies to the unique facts that the parties face has …
New York Daily Fantasy Sports Suit: State’s Opening Brief Makes a Strong Pitch that the Legislature Rationally Determined that DFS is Not “Gambling” Under the NY Constitution
The game for the fate of daily fantasy sports in New York is on, and the State has scored first. Ok, ok. In appellate litigation, the losing party below always gets the ball first. And the State certainly lost below in this one. Judge Connolly of Supreme Court, Albany County held that daily fantasy sports …
No Office, No Problem: Court of Appeals Holds that Violation of Judiciary Law § 470’s “Physical Office” Requirement Does Not Render Action a Nullity, But Could Subject Attorney to Discipline
In a unanimous decision authored by Judge Michael Garcia, the Court of Appeals today resolved an important issue of first impression implicating multi-state practice in New York—“whether an action, such as filing a complaint, taken by a lawyer duly admitted to the bar of this State but without the required New York office is a …
The New York Constitution Can Help Fix the Backlog of Appeals in the Appellate Division, Second Department
Everyone admits that the backlog of pending appeals in the Appellate Division, Second Department is a problem. As Presiding Justice Alan Scheinkman acknowledged in an op-ed in the NY Law Journal last fall, "it can take as long as 18 months for a civil appeal to obtain a place on the court’s day calendar and …
Court of Appeals January Session Arguments of Interest: U.S. Bank National Association v DLJ Mortgage Capital, Inc.
If you thought the fallout from the residential mortgage foreclosure had run its course by now, you'd be wrong. For in the New York courts (and many others, I'm sure), litigation over bad mortgages lives on, and once again finds its way to the New York Court of Appeals. This time, the Court is asked …
Court of Appeals January Session Arguments of Interest: Arrowhead Capital Finance, Ltd. v Cheyne Specialty Finance Fund L.P.
The Court of Appeals begins the new year with one week of oral arguments that features a critical issue effecting multi-state practice of law in New York. On January 9, 2019, the second day of oral arguments, the Court will determine whether the failure of a plaintiff’s nonresident attorney to maintain an in-state office at …
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