Plaintiff Must Show Its Hand First in Trade Secret Theft Case-NY Court

  In a significant decision that was handed down on April 20 in MSCI Inc., Financial Engineering Associates, Inc., et al. v. Jacob, Axioma, Inc., et al., New York County trial justice Shirley Kornreich held that a software company claiming that one of its competitors had wrongly misappropriated their trade secret software that is sold [...]

Why It’s So Tough to Win a Quick Dismissal of a NY Complaint

  I have often been asked the following question in one form or another: “This claim is ridiculous. Why doesn’t the Court just throw it out, and dismiss the Complaint?” The short answer is, that so long as from the face of the Complaint, there may be a valid, cognizable claim, New York courts are [...]

The Fun Part of Being a NY Business Litigation Attorney

Last week, I received a fax from one of my adversaries that admittedly caught me by surprise: His clients apparently decided to discontinue their breach of professional services contract action against my client. In truth, I’m not sure what prompted this action on their part; and I may never know the answer. When my client [...]

Why Aggressive Advocacy Doesn’t Mean You Have to Be Nasty in NY

It is terribly unfortunate and disturbing that some lawyers seem to believe that civility and politeness are inherently at odds with good, aggressive advocacy. Let me be perfectly clear: I have no problem with an attorney aggressively protecting and pursuing his client’s interests. Everyone’s got a job to do. And there are certainly times when [...]

In Defamation Case, NY Appeals Court Pushes Hard for E-Data

In an opinion that was handed down yesterday in the defamation case of Tener v. Cremer, New York’s Appellate Division, First Department held that the trial court erred by denying outright – without a hearing – a plaintiff’s motion seeking to hold NYU in contempt for failing to protect or produce electronically stored information (ESI) [...]

Why Some NY Fraud & Defamation Lawsuits Make No Sense

International Shoppes, Inc., et al.  v. Spencer is a case from a trial court in Nassau County, NY that is scheduled to appear in tomorrow’s edition of The New York Law Journal that is the poster child – at least in my view – for litigation run amok.  And, lest you think that I meant [...]

One Way (Albeit Rare) to Recoup Legal Fees in NY: “Frivolous Conduct”

As noted elsewhere (see, e.g., “Why It’s So Hard to Recover Legal Fees in a NY Breach of Contract Case“) , the general rule in New York is that you cannot recover the costs you’ve incurred to defend a lawsuit that has been brought against you. Of course, there are some exceptions to that rule,  [...]

Despite Tortious Act in NY, Foreign Company Immune to NY Jurisdiction in Tortious Interference Claim

It is indeed rare that cases which hinge completely on jurisdictional or procedural grounds could have any interest at all for non-lawyers. But GS Plasticos Limitada v. Bureau Veritas, which was just decided last week, is one such case. In this tortious interference with contract case, the plaintiff, a Brazilian company, claimed that it lost [...]

How a NY Company Lost Its Tortious Inference Claim – Even Though It Was Unopposed

Back in August, I wrote about the Most Formidable Defense to a Tortious Interference Claim in New York: justification. In other words, as long as a defendant can show that they induced Company A to break their agreement with Company B for legitimate economic reasons, the tortious interference claim will likely fail. But, as pointed [...]

3 Ways to Recoup Your Legal Fees in New York

Much to my clients’ chagrin (and yes, I get asked this question a lot), the instances where you can actually recover your legal fees expended on a case in New York are very rare. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some circumstances where you can get them. As noted in “How You Can Recover [...]