Apr 23 2012
The then Mayor of the Village of Freeport was vindicated by the Second Department (a NY Appeals court covering Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Nassau, Suffolk, and parts of Upstate NY), for remarks he made in a public election debate during which he called the plaintiff, a commercial real estate developer, “an extortionist” who was “trying …
Apr 11 2012
A long time ago, I wrote an article entitled “The Constitution is Overrated” and friends and colleagues of mine who knew the admiration and passion that I have for this country’s grand document were surprised at the piece which faulted, not the document itself, but how courts have applied it; rarely, do courts give those …
Apr 05 2012
Owners of bars, nightclubs, restaurants and other venues that play background music or have live music at their establishments should take note of the Ninth Circuit’s decision last month in Range Road Music v. East Coast Foods where it held up a large award against a restaurant that refused to pay a licensing fee for …
Apr 02 2012
Last Friday, Judge John Koetl of the Southern District of NY threw out a purported $105 million lawsuit brought against the Huffington Post by a class of unpaid bloggers. The lead plaintiff was political gadfly Jonathan Tasini who has mounted several unsuccessful campaigns for federal office, against Hillary Clinton, Charles Rangel and Kirsten Gillibrand. Having …
Mar 29 2012
OK, I know there is no need to tell you who Trayvon Martin is or why his case is getting all this attention, so let me jump right in to the issue as I see it. Yes, Florida has an absurd self-defense law when it states that you can use deadly physical force without having …