New York Supreme Court

NEW YORK SUPREME COURT 2011 JUDICIAL DEPARTURES, NEW ASSIGNMENTS, AND REASSIGNMENT OF INVENTORIES

by Fred Abramson on January 4, 2011

As of December 31, 2009, the following Justices have retired: Justices Harold Beeler (Part 21), Joan B. Carey (Part 29), Nicholas Figueroa (Part 46), Edward H. Lehner (Part 19), Marilyn Shafer (Part 8), and Walter B. Tolub (Part 15).

The following Judges have become Justices of the Supreme Court, Civil Branch, New York County beginning January 1, 2010: Justices Lucy A. Billings, Barbara Jaffe, Joan M. Kenney, Cynthia S. Kern, Manuel J. Mendez, Kibbie F. Payne, and George J. Silver.

Certain Justices who have been assigned to this court will receive new Part assignments as of January 1, 2010, as follows: Justice Eileen A. Rakower will leave City Part 5 and take over Part 15 (formerly Tolub, J.); Justice Saliann Scarpulla will leave City Part 52 and take over Part 19 (formerly Lehner, J.); Justice Martin Shulman, in addition to his current assignments, will take over Judge Tolub’s tax certiorari inventory (henceforth assigned to Justice Shulman’s Part 1); Justice Michael Stallman will take over the Transit Part, Part 21 (formerly Beeler, J.); Justice Paul Wooten will take over Part 7 (formerly Stallman, J.)

The newly arriving Justices will be assigned to the following Parts and, at least for the time being, the following courtrooms:

Justice                                 Part                                 Courtroom

Billings                                46                                     71 Thomas, Rm. 103

Jaffe                                      5                                       80 Centre, Rm. 307

(City Part)

(Formerly Rakower, J.)

Kenney                              8                                        71 Thomas, Rm. 304

(formerly Shafer, J.)

Kern                                   52                                       80 Centre, Rm. 546

(E-Filing City Part)

(formerly Scarpulla, J.)

Silver                               22                                        80 Centre, Rm. 122

(Motor Vehicle) (formerly Wooten, J.)

This information is provided by the New York Court System.

The Law Office of Frederic R. Abramson handles per diem court appearances for attorneys in New York, Kings, Bronx and Queens Counties. Visit our Per Diem page for more information.

The bar is high for Defamation Lawsuits against reviewers on Yelp and “Gripe” sites.

by Fred Abramson on November 3, 2009

Larry David

Image via Wikipedia

Unhappy customers are a fact of life for small businesses.  In the past, if a customer was was not pleased about the Miso Black Cod he would simply kvetch to a hundred of his closest friends and never return (unless he was Larry David).

Web 2.0 has changed the way people complain.  Disgruntled customers now spend their time logging on to Yelp, Facebook and “Gripe” sites to express their feelings to the net citizens of the world.  A  poor review on Yelp could create losses of thousands of dollars.  If the review is defamatory, should you sue?

The New York Law Journal (pay wall) reports that the bar is very high for a company to win a defamation lawsuit against an individual. In Intellectual Art Multimedia v. Milewski, New York Supreme Court Justice Hon. Judith Gische recently ruled against the company in its Internet defamation lawsuit against a customer who posted negative comments on the Rippoff Report.

Intellectual Art runs the Swiss Finance Academy which operates a school of business. It sued a customer for defamation due to a negative review. Here is a sample of the alleged defamatory comments:

  • “[t]hey tell you where the location is then a week before the program starts they change the location and say no refunds whatsoever.”
  • “everything they taught was a “JOKE.”

Judge Gische decided that the “speech [was] merely an alleged statement about [the customer’s] personal opinion about the quality of the services of the plaintiff (Intellectual Art).”  In addition, the judge ruled that on issues dealing with advocating on part of the consumer, courts are reluctant to stifle criticism of goods or services.

Conclusion

Don’t get me wrong,  small businesses can still sue a customer for defamation. If the remarks are more than criticism, contact a lawyer.  However, in this era of transparency, it is much cheaper to engage in business practices that foster trust than to start a  lawsuit.  Use Google Alerts and establish a Twitter account to monitor your brand.  If a customer is unhappy, ask him why. Companies such as Zappos built an empire on listening to their customers through social media.  So should you.

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