A unanimous panel of the Appellate Division, First Department, upheld a lower court’s decision to unseal settlement documents stemming from the 2008 collapse of a construction crane that killed seven people. The panel ruled in Squeri v. East 51st Street Development, 117452/08, that Manhattan Justice Carol Edmead properly exercised her discretion when she unsealed the documents Full Article…
Appeals Court OKs Lifting Seal on Turtle Bay Crane Collapse Wrongful Death Settlements
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. wins a landmark case on whether court settlements can be sealed. Defendants in this deadly crane collapse had settled with Labor Law death plaintiffs from the available pool of insurance. They refused to disclose settlement amounts based on a prior Order that settlements would remain confidential until all Labor Law death Full Article…
The Metamorphosis of the Environmental Control Board
By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman When coauthor of this article (Bailey) learned how to conduct real estate trials as a young lawyer in Supreme and Civil Courts, the Environmental Control Board (ECB) was where he spread his wings as a trial attorney. While other practitioners joked that the place was a kangaroo court Full Article…
Lawyer not to be judged by his cover
By Liana Grey Last month, the real estate lawyer Adam Leitman Bailey received an award from the National Association of Real Estate Editors for his best-selling book, Finding the Uncommon Deal: A Top Lawyer Explains How to Buy A Home for the Lowest Possible Price. Much of the how-to guide, which took Bailey six years Full Article…
Using the Judicial System to Abate the Foreclosure Crisis
By Adam Leitman Bailey And Rachel Sigmund Many stagnant foreclosures in the United States have been stuck in the judicial process for more than two years. This article describes how several states have addressed one of the primary legal impediments clogging the pipelines of pending or future foreclosures: lenders’ inability to locate the original mortgage Full Article…
Declaratory Judgment: Judges May Weigh Title if Ancillary to Authorized Relief
By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman There continues to be a good deal of confusion and controversy about what kinds of things the Civil Court can and cannot hear. Often litigants and sometimes even courts will mistake a call for the Civil Court to make a particular determination on the way to resolving a Full Article…
New Power of Attorney Law Corrects Some Flaws, Not All
By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman On Oct. 14, 2009, these authors critiqued the then brand new Statutory Short Form Power of Attorney (POA) statute. In brief, we found it to be a disaster. Now sitting on the governor’s desk, awaiting signature, is a heavily amended version of the statute addressing a number of the Full Article…
Calls for State Insurance Threaten Property Transfers
By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman Currently before the State Legislature are two bills, each jointly introduced in both houses, that would inject the state in the business of title insurance, damaging New York’s standing as the capital of real estate transactions. One would broaden the power of the State Insurance Fund to provide Full Article…