In today’s article, we explore New York’s heightened pleading standard for defamation per se and defamation by implication.

On October 31, 2025, the Supreme Court, Kings County, decided loanDepot.com LLC v. Ortner, a case addressing the meaning of the “taking proceedings” requirement of CPLR 3215(c).

In Sire Spirits, LLC v. Beam Suntory, Inc., 2025 N.Y. Slip Op. 06297 (1st Dept. Nov. 18, 2025), the Appellate Division, First Department affirmed the denial of a motion to amend a complaint seeking damages for “diminution of enterprise value” due to the alleged fraud.

By:  Jeffrey M. Haber In Allen v. Fidelity Brokerage Servs. LLC , 2025 N.Y. Slip Op. 34169(U) (Sup. Ct., N.Y. County Oct. 30, 2025), plaintiff, the representative of her son’s estate, sought to vacate a FINRA arbitration award after claims alleging negligent oversight of speculative options trading were denied. The arbitration panel imposed $25,000 in sanctions for violating FINRA Rule 12209 by filing a parallel court action. Plaintiff argued the panel exceeded its authority

In Tri-Rail, the Court decided a “question which has not been directly addressed” in the Second Department involving the impact of non-compliance with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (f/k/a the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act) (the “Act”) on obtaining a default judgment.

By:  Jeffrey M. Haber In today’s article, we examine Hofman v. Braun , 2025 N.Y. Slip Op. 34102(U) (Sup. Ct., N.Y. County Oct. 24, 2025) ( here ), a case addressing the statute of limitations for a breach of fiduciary duty claim and the continuous wrong doctrine. In Hofman , plaintiffs alleged that defendant, Seymour Braun, their attorney, initially represented them in forming limited liability companies and negotiating a loan, then engaged in actions adverse to their intere

By: Jonathan H. Freiberger William Cowper, in his Eighteenth-Century poem “The Task,” coined the phrase “Variety’s the very spice of life.” Today, this phrase is used in many contexts; albeit not so frequently when discussing service of process under CPLR 308(4) – the subject of today’s BLOG. In our recent BLOG article: “ Primer – Personal Jurisdiction and Service of Process ” we explored various process service issues. As discussed therein, obtaining personal jurisdiction

By: Jeffrey M. Haber Today, we examine familiar principles of contract interpretation, as well as the requirements for judicial dissolution of a partnership.  The Rules of Contract Interpretation It is well-settled in New York that the “‘fundamental, neutral precept of contract interpretation is that agreements are construed in accord with the parties’ intent<,> ’ and ‘ he best evidence of what parties to a written agreement intend is what they say in their writing.’” “‘The

By:  Jeffrey M. Haber In 2019, New York enacted the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act, which repealed and replaced certain provisions of the Debtor and Creditor Law (“DCL”) relating to fraudulent conveyances, which became effective April 4, 2020. Transfers made after April 4, 2020 are governed by the current version of the DCL. The DCL, as amended, permits creditors to void actual and constructive fraudulent transfers. A creditor may void a debtor’s constructive fraudulent t