It’s spoliation week here at the NYSBA CasePrepPlus newsletter. Both the First and Fourth Departments had a chance to explain the severe consequences that can result if parties fail to preserve relevant information, especially electronic information, for disclosure in discovery. Let’s take a look at those opinions and what else has been happening in New …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 6.14.24: What Analysis Must a Trial Court Undertake When a Criminal Defendant Raises a Batson Challenge to the Striking of a Potential Juror of Color?
When a criminal defendant raises a Batson challenge to the prosecution’s use of a peremptory challenge to strike a potential juror of color from the jury, what steps must the trial courts follow to determine whether the peremptory was based in invidious racial discrimination or the People had race-neutral reasons for the strike? The Third …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 6.7.24: When May New York Courts Take Judicial Notice of Foreign Law?
This week, the Court of Appeals delved into New York’s choice of law rules when the dispute involves the internal affairs of a corporation, noting that the law of the place of incorporation will typically apply, and explained to the bench and bar when courts may take judicial notice of foreign law. And the Second …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 5.31.24: New York’s Requirement that Employers Provide Insurance Coverage for Medically Necessary Abortion Services Survives a Post-Fulton Free Exercise Challenge
It’s another big week of constitutional law in New York. This week, the Court of Appeals reaffirmed its holding that New York’s regulatory requirement that employers provide insurance coverage for medically necessary abortion services, and its exemption for “religious employers,” are generally applicable and do not violate the Free Exercise Clause. And the Court adopted …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 5.24.24: What Must the Police Show to Stop a Car for Having Excessively Tinted Windows?
This week, the Court of Appeals is back with its first opinions from the April argument session, with the Court addressing the People’s evidentiary burden to demonstrate probable cause to stop a car for having excessively tinted windows and how the Workers’ Compensation Law presumption that an injury that occurs in the course of employment …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 5.17.24: New York’s Mail-in Voting Law Survives Congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s Constitutional Challenge
It’s a blockbuster week here at the NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter. We’re talking about two monumental constitutional law opinions out of the Third Department this week. In the first, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, in his attempt to keep his COVID-19 book royalties, successfully argued that the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government, …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 5.10.24: Are AirBnB Rentals Considered “Single-Family Residential” Uses Under a Subdivision’s Restrictive Covenants?
This week, by request, we’ll take a look at one more Court of Appeals criminal law decision from the April session releases. In People v Franklin, the Court examined whether a Criminal Justice Agency questionnaire was “testimonial” for Sixth Amendment confrontation purposes. Beyond the Court of Appeals’ order, the Third Department examined whether a short-term …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 5.3.24: New York Court of Appeals Reverses Harvey Weinstein’s Rape Conviction Because of the Admission of Evidence of his Prior Bad Acts
The Court of Appeals was busy delving into criminal law this month, with lots of interesting opinions affecting how criminal trials must be run in New York. The most newsworthy, of course, was the Court’s reversal of Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction because it was tainted by the introduction of impermissible prior bad acts that tainted …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 4.26.24: When a Company Acquires the Assets and Liabilities of Another Company, It Also Acquires Its Jurisdictional Contacts
May a company that acquires all of the assets and liabilities of another company have the personal jurisdiction contacts of the other company attributed to it for purposes of suit on the liabilities it acquired? The Court of Appeals clarified that when a company buys assets and liabilities, it is also buying the acquired company’s …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 4.19.24: What Must a Plaintiff Demonstrate to Avoid an Anti-SLAPP Dismissal of a Defamation Claim?
This week, the First Department took a deep dive into the legislative history underlying New York’s anti-SLAPP law, and clarified that when a plaintiff is opposing an anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss, the plaintiff must come forward with “such relevant proof as a reasonable mind may accept as adequate to support” its claim to avoid dismissal …
New York Appeals 