New York Law Journal

New York City Small-Claims Court Just Got Smaller

​Budget troubles are everywhere, which you likely know if you are attempting to sue someone in small-claims court. As a result of that belt-tightening, reports the New York Law Journal, city small-claims courts themselves are cutting back to one night from four per week. This brings the number ... More >>

Judge Decides the Daily News Has to Give Up Information About a Murder

​Which takes precedence? A newspaper reporter's right to protect a source? Or a criminal defendant's right to information that could save him from a murder conviction? This week, we're learning that a judge chose a murder defendant over the Daily News. The judge, Mark Dwyer of Brooklyn Suprem ... More >>

Andrew Stein, The Man Who Wanted to Be Mayor, Admits Tax Scam

​Former City Council President and one-time mayoral candidate Andrew Stein pled guilty yesterday to a $1 million tax fraud. This didn't rate big headlines since Stein long ago faded into the city's rearview mirror, which is where he always belonged. If he was spotted at all in recent years, it ... More >>

Brooklyn A.D.A. Turned Apprentice Is Too Hot (and Famous!) to Practice Law

​Mahsa Saeidi-Azcuy, a 29-year-old assistant district attorney in Brooklyn who's currently on The Apprentice, has resigned from her legal gig to focus on, we guess, being the best apprentice she can be. Or on being a star. Which is happening!!! Apparently, jurors had started to recognize her, ... More >>

Judge Rules Saggy Pants-Wearing Not Illegal, Just Stupid

​In a groundbreaking decision, a Bronx judge has determined that wearing saggy pants that expose your underwear is not illegal in New York! Some notes from the judge's decision, via the New York Law Journal:

Judge Nora Anderson: Not Guilty by Jury Verdict

​A Manhattan judge has had her own day in court and you can now count Nora Anderson, whose election to Manhattan Surrogate's Court in November, 2008 was delayed by criminal indictment, as a big believer in the jury system. That's because yesterday a jury acquitted Anderson and a prominent att ... More >>

Bloomberg Takes Twin Hits: Angry Judges and Lost Bank Accounts

​More signs of the steadily falling stock price of Team Bloomberg today: First, the Times reports that those 'hidden bank accounts' that had Mayor Mike calling in the bloodhounds on outgoing veteran D.A. Robert Morgenthau are widespread throughout city agencies. Times tag-team Willie Rashbaum ... More >>

Lawyer Robert Simels Gets 14 Years for Attempts to Tamper With, "Neutralize" Witnesses

​In March the Voice reported on the case of Robert Simels, a high-powered attorney for high-level crooks from Henry Hill (the "hero" of GoodFellas) to major drug dealers with a low level of regard for human life, which prosecutors suggested Simels shared and enabled. Sample from the story:Ac ... More >>

Murdoch Forces Google to Change "First Click" to "First 5 Clicks" Free

Looks like Rupert Murdoch is getting some traction in his quest to keep "kleptomaniacs" like you and us from getting his content for free. Google senior Business Product Manager Josh Cohen says at the Google News Blog that his company is "updating" its First Click Free program, which had previously ... More >>

Judge: Bank Not Liable for Terror Attacks Possibly Funded by Its Wire Transfers

​A group of victims of terrorist bombings by Hezbollah and Hamas lost a suit in New York this week against the Swiss banking giant UBS. A federal judge ruled that that bank's transfer of large amounts of U.S. currency to Iran didn't count as "aiding and abetting" international terrorism. 4 ... More >>

Paterson's Lawyers Grilled on Ravitch Appointment

Last month Governor Paterson's team of lawyers were confident that, despite Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's cavils, Public Officers Law 43 made it perfectly Constitutional for the Governor to install Richard Ravitch as Lieutenant Governor. But Paterson's team had rough sledding at a hearing yesterd ... More >>

Times Endorses Vance for D.A.; Contenders About Even in Cash on Hand

Cy Vance got a big boost in the Manhattan D.A.'s race from the New York Times, which has endorsed him as "an accomplished criminal and civil trial lawyer who offers balanced judgment and a commitment to criminal justice reform." They like his "Conviction Integrity Panel" idea, a sort of internal af ... More >>

Court: Times Can't Have Spitzer Sex Scandal Wiretap Info

The New York Times has lost its bid to obtain wiretap information related to former Governor Eliot Spitzer's involvement in the Emperor's Club prostitution ring. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that general journalistic or public interest -- what the Times argued was the basis fo ... More >>

Some Judges Ban Social Media from Trials

Some judges are now banning Blackberrys and IPhones from juries. In the Brooke Astor trial in New York City, the judge warned jurors not to Twitter, blog, email, or do any internet research about the issues at hand. With people publishing every more minute details of their lives on social media si ... More >>

Fraudster-Lawyer Had a Fraudster-Partner

The Marc Dreier case just gets more entertaining. Readers may recall the formerly high-powered law firm boss was busted in Canada last year for pretending to someone else at a pension fund meeting. It was eventually revealed that he'd been masquerading like this for months, making $700 million on fa ... More >>

Feds Seek Mrs. Madoff's Millions; Madoff Release Highly Unlikely

Now that he's pleaded guilty, federal prosecutors are getting more serious about recovering Bernie Madoff's ill-gotten gains. They are reportedly going after the Park Avenue townhouse and assets belonging to Madoff's wife Ruth, though Madoff's lawyers claim they are not part of the fraudulent earni ... More >>

Panel Rejects Anti-Atlantic Yards Suit; Plaintiffs Will Appeal

Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's legal challenge to the contentious Atlantic Yards project has been rejected, 3-0, in an Appellate Division panel ruling. According to the New York Law Journal, DDDB contended that officials improperly judged some properties "blighted" so that they could be seized f ... More >>

Madoff Lawyer Has Valuable Experience with Madoff-Involved Crooks

The glossies interview movie stars and scene-makers, but the New York Law Journal interviews Bernie Madoff's lawyer. As you might expect, though, counselor Ira Lee Sorkin doesn't say much. But his history with Madoff is interesting: After meeting the swindler in the 1980s, the former SEC prosecutor, ... More >>

Judge: Fast Food Calorie Board Law Doesn't Violate Free Speech

Photo (cc) pnoeric. You probably find those calorie counts in chain restaurants, displayed by a local law last year, to be helpful or at least horrifying (670 calories in a Venti Double Chocolaty Chip Frappuccino Blended Creme?). But libertarians hate them and dream of returning to the caveat empt ... More >>

Lawyer/Impersonator Dreier Wants Madoff-Style House Arrest, But For Free

Maybe you remember Marc S. Dreier, the high-powered lawyer who was jailed for criminal impersonation and later revealed to be in the habit of pretending to be what he was not, and to have money he didn't have, for the purposes of scamming $400 million. The New York Law Journal today reveals that D ... More >>

Caged Citizen Will Test President Obama

Under 23-hour lockdown here, an innocent American is a Bush "dark side" legacy

Bloomberg Wants to Get in Your Genes

Compared to the present mayor’s contempt for civil liberties, Giuliani was a piker

J. Edgar Bloomberg: COINTELPRO in NY

Not only the president is in need of an education on the Bill of Rights

New York's Most Obnoxious Lawyer

Do we have to pick just one? Kenny Heller won't admit it, but he could make a case for the title if he hadn't been disbarred—for obnoxious behavior.

Bush Revives Espionage Act

Bush's war on the disloyal press climaxes in a trial on classified information.

Mugging the Minutemen

Forcibly silenced, an invited speaker at Columbia has not been invited back.

The Torture Judge

U.S. court rules our government can break international laws to keep us safe

John Roberts v. One French Fry

Beneath his black robes, what does Roberts reveal of his values as a human being?

Pataki's Quiet Court-Packing

Long after he's gone, the governor's GOP judges will still be ruling

The Scourge of Her Conviction

Activist Elena Sassower annoyed congress, her trial judge, and defenders of free speech—all the way to jail

The Next Big Scandal

Bush's Vanished Prisoner

He Wonders Whether He Will See the Light of Day Again

Spoils System

How a Hefty Fee for an Ex-Governor Went Unnoticed

George W. Bush's Constitution

'Does It Take a Lifetime to Question a Man?'

A Prosecutor’s Revenge

Javert of ‘Les Misérables’ Lives!

The Wrong Man Gets a Second Chance

A Decision Protecting All Defendants

Judge Ross vs. Free Speech

Disorderly Conduct by Whom?

Pataki Patronage

The Guv's Attempt to Name a Prosecutor Lays Bare His Own Scandal

Will Schumer Stand Up?

Only He Can Prevent a Hack Bush-Pataki Appointment

Remembering Attica

Thirty Years Later, the Story of America’s Worst Prison Riot Continues

Pataki’s Political Pick

Guv and Fonz Make Disneyland Selection for New U.S. Attorney

Watershed Fallout

Could the Probe of a Top Eco Cop Affect New York's Senate Race?

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