By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Oct 01, 2019 | 0 Comments
On September 20, 2019, First Mercury Insurance Company filed a lawsuit against the Manhattan based law firm of D'Amato & Lynch claiming that it unethically deposited a $1 million dollar settlement check into its operating account rather than a trust or escrow account. Worse yet, First Mercury cla...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Sep 16, 2019 | 0 Comments
Last week, an appellate court reversed Justice Ellen Spodek of the Supreme Court, Kings County who presided over a wrongful death medical malpractice action against Maimonides Medical Center (Maimonides). The decedent's family claimed, that the emergency room physician properly diagnosed his pati...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Sep 12, 2019 | 0 Comments
On September 11, 2019, an appellate court threw out a Queens County jury verdict in favor of a patient, finding that a one month delay in advising a post-op patient of the need for further spinal surgery was inconsequential.
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Sep 09, 2019 | 0 Comments
On August 26, 2019, Governor Cuomo signed a new law that will allow victims of domestic violence to seek money damages against both those who violate an Order of Protection and those who fail to enforce that Order.
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Sep 06, 2019 | 0 Comments
On August 28, 2019 the appellate court covering Queens County revived a dismissed malpractice case, but held that the dilatory conduct of plaintiff's attorney would be better punished by refusing him the right to depose any of the physicians or nurses employed by the hospital defendant. The plain...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Sep 05, 2019 | 0 Comments
On August 29, 2019 a Manhattan Supreme Court Justice ruled that the owner of a building on the upper west side was legally liable for the injuries suffered by a pedestrian who tripped face forward over a pile of Christmas trees discarded on the sidewalk. The accident occurred late at night when t...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Sep 03, 2019 | 0 Comments
Last week an appellate court agreed that because a client lied on a bankruptcy petition when he denied making pre-petition transfers to his wife--he could not blame his attorney who prepared the form. A federal bankruptcy court had denied the plaintiff a discharge of his debts finding that he mad...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Aug 27, 2019 | 0 Comments
Last week an appellate court held that a New York, Niagara County Supreme Court Justice violated the First Amendment rights of a family suing a hospital and physicians for prematurely declaring their father dead and delaying emergent heart surgery for hours. The decedent was brought to an emergen...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Aug 26, 2019 | 0 Comments
On August 21, 2019 an appellate court revived a medical malpractice claim that had been dismissed against a urologist and Huntington Hospital located in Suffolk County, New York. A 13 year old boy presented to the emergency room at Huntington Hospital complaining of pain in the lower right side o...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Aug 15, 2019 | 0 Comments
Yesterday, the Child Victims Act became effective paving the way for thousands of victims to file suits for money damages arising out of sexual abuse. This legislation increases the time during which sexual predators may be held both criminally and civilly liable. Under this new law victims of se...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Aug 14, 2019 | 0 Comments
On August 7, 2019, an appellate court reversed a Nassau County Supreme Court Justice and agreed to dismiss a legal malpractice claim based on a claim that the attorney's malpractice compelled it to settle a lawsuit. The underlying case was a claim for damage to a commercial building in Port Washi...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Aug 09, 2019 | 0 Comments
On July 24, 2019, an appellate court reviewed a Westchester County jury verdict that was claimed to be so low and inadequate as to "deviate materially from what would be [considered] reasonable compensation." The plaintiff was 30 years old at the time of trial and had fractured his ankle in a mot...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Aug 08, 2019 | 0 Comments
Yesterday, a real estate developer filed a legal malpractice complaint in New York County against Herrick Feinstein, LLP, claiming that his lawsuit against a former business partner was irreparably damaged becauseĀ a federal court Judge won't allow expert testimony at the trial in November due to...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Aug 07, 2019 | 0 Comments
A plastic surgeon will have to stand trial on a patient's malpractice complaint that his surgery caused total vision loss in her left eye. The plaintiff/patient was a 35 year old woman who agreed to undergo multiple procedures in 2015 to ...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Aug 05, 2019 | 0 Comments
On July 31, 2019, a client suing an attorney for two different complaints of malpractice, lost one claim and the other survived to be scheduled for a jury trial. It was claimed that the attorney was negligent "during proceedings arising from plaintiff's operation of a biofuel business". The lower...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Aug 05, 2019 | 0 Comments
On June 11, 2019 an appellate court upheld the suspension of attorney for 18 months. During the course of representing a female client in a domestic relations matter, the client and attorney admittedly texted intimate photographs of each other along with sexually explicit messages. The client cla...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Aug 01, 2019 | 0 Comments
In a recent decision by a Supreme Court New York County Justice, the subject of sealing court filings from public disclosure was reviewed. The widow of a world famous celebrity--the late Glenn Frey, asked the Justice George Silver for an Order "sealing the entire file in this action" pursuant to ...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Jul 31, 2019 | 0 Comments
The wrongful death/medical malpractice claim brought by the widow of the famously popular music star Glenn Frey (member of the "Eagles" band) is battling with The Mount Sinai Hospital over disclosure of financial records related to her deceased husband's earnings .Frey passed away in January 2016...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Jul 30, 2019 | 0 Comments
On July 17, 2019 a Brooklyn jury awarded $5,000,000 to the Estate of a 39 year old woman who died a year and a half after a cadaver kidney transplant surgery. Her death was a result of serious complications due to a urinary leak caused by an improperly secured ureter (urinary tube from kidney to ...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Jul 29, 2019 | 0 Comments
An upstate appellate court agreed (on July 11, 2019) that a client suing a law firm for malpractice during a litigation should have his case heard by a jury. The trial court held that the law firm's motion to dismiss the client's case on the ground that the complaint failed to state a cause of ac...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Jul 26, 2019 | 0 Comments
On July 25, 2019 an appeals Court reversed an Order of a trial court that refused to dismiss a defamation claim against an emergency room physician filed by the parents of a 2 year old boy who suffered an unexplained skull fracture. The ER doctor questioned the parents who were unable to explain ...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Jul 25, 2019 | 0 Comments
On July 24. 2019 an appellate court agreed that the owner of a guard dog (who had never bitten anyone before) that lacerated the face of an 11 year old boy must stand trial. There was no proof that the dog had ever bitten anyone or acted aggressively so the owner filed a pre-trial motion to dismi...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Jul 19, 2019 | 0 Comments
On July 2, 2019, the appellate court covering Manhattan upheld the dismissal of a legal malpractice claim alleging that the attorney representing the purchaser of a property for $1.4M was negligent for failing to secure court approval for the sale. The property was being sold by a not-for-profit ...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Jul 18, 2019 | 0 Comments
Last month, an appellate court hearing appeals from Queens County cases reversed a trial court and granted St. John's Episcopal Hospital South Shore motion to dismiss the case of a patient suing for sexual assault. The plaintiff while admitted as a patient of St. John's claimed to have been sexua...
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By Ronald C. Burke, Esq on Jul 09, 2019 | 0 Comments
On July 2, 2019 an appellate court agreed that Dr. Francois Lacour-Gayet, Chief of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery at Montefiore Medical Center, was not entitled to dismissal of an infant's claim for medical malpractice. The lower court found that the heart surgeon had departed from accepted sta...
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