Will Coronavirus Push New York’s Courts Out of the Colonial Era? (Updated!)
Tweet Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Marks of the Courts of New York State delivers testimony during a joint legislative budget hearing on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016, in Albany, N.Y. (Photo/Hans Pennink) [Huge update at the end as NY suspends new jury trials, both civil and criminal] New York’s Chief Administrative Judge, Lawrence K. Marks, issued a memo late Thursday to the judicial system about procedures to deal with COVID-19. Short story, the courts are still open and there is no suspension of jury trials. Yet. But there’s a tantalizing morsel I want to discuss. There are the six paragraphs, of which I will deal only with the 5th. Because it deals with procedures to reduce attorney traffic inside the courts: (1) Intro; (2…
Labor and Immigrants and Injuries, Oh My!
Building the Empire State Building This piece is about the importance of New York’s Labor Law for people who work at heights, but it starts in faraway Boston. It starts there because the story from the Boston Globe is shocking, and it should wake folks up to what goes on behind the scenes. The basic story is simple enough: Jose Martin Paz Flores had a job taping drywall for Tara Construction. He fell off a ladder and broke his femur in March 2017. The injury required immediate surgery. “But Paz — a father of five — could not get compensation for that injury because the company’s workers’ compensation insurance policy had lapsed.” What to do? The owner of Tara Construction, Pedro Pirez, decided to make …
Words You Should Never Use
Over the weekend, W. Virginia Chief Justice Beth Walker tweeted out a list of words that are banned from her opinions. It’s a good list, and one that all lawyers should note, as these words don’t belong in briefs either. I’ve written before about crappy legal writing, from both the bar and the bench. It’s not that concise writing will necessarily win your client’s case but that at least your arguments can be appreciated. Far worse than writing a losing argument is writing an argument that isn’t even read because it makes the eyes glaze over. Lawyers are (in)famous for cluttering our letters and briefs with pretentious, and wholly unnecessary, language, thereby distracting from the point. A good quote to keep…
A Lawyers’ Listserv Gets SCOTUS Recognition
Sign inside the Supreme Court on Tuesday. It came as a shock to everyone in our informal listserv group that was sworn in on Tuesday to the Supreme Court bar. When we entered the building, we were asked what group we were from. Ummm, each of us stuttered, a group of trial lawyers from New York organized by Jay Breakstone? “You guys the Rogues?” Holy shit! The SCOTUS marshals and clerks knew the jokey name of our informal listserv!? No way! We were at first startled and flabbergasted, then astounded and amazed. Our little group of 28 New York personal injury lawyers, plaintiffs-side only, walked up the interior stairs of the Court, following those clerks and marshals, who all knew we were “the Rogues,…