by Andy Chen | Mar 31, 2020 | California
Here is a video I have on my Youtube channel where I go over guarantees a lawyer might make a client make ask for when it comes to the outcome of a case. In short, I argue that it’s not realistic for a client to ask their lawyer for a guaranteed outcome (e.g. the client will win at trial, etc). The reason is because that outcome will depend on many factors that are outside of the lawyer’s control. At a minimum, it will depend, for instance, on what evidence the opposing party or parties have, what witnesses will testify to, and the habits and idiosyncrasies of the judge and jury. In my experience, many clients don’t understand this and think incorrectly that they should hire a lawyer who gives a guarantee over a lawyer who does not. If you are in a position where a prospective attorney is offering you such a guarantee, it may be prudent to stop and ask yourself whether this attorney is just offering you the guarantee in order to get your business and your money. In this blog post, I’m going to add on to my video above by citing to some authority, specifically the California Rules of Professional Conduct (CPRC). I have a video on my Youtube channel about the CPRC also which I’ll embed below. That video is a bit old so it uses the old CPRC numbering scheme of a number, a dash, and additional numbers (e.g. Rule 3-100). The current CPRC scheme dispenses with the dashes in favor of decimal points (e.g. Rule 1.5). If any of you need it,...
by Andy Chen | Mar 10, 2020 | New York, Torts
A while back, I wrote a post about what civil battery under California law. This post is going to be the comparable post for New York law. Law school in the US is somewhat generic in that you learn what a given offense (e.g. civil battery) is in the abstract, even though the actual criteria for the offense in the real world will dependent on the state. When I learned about civil battery, for example, I learned it as “a harmful or offense touching either done with subjective desire or knowledge to a substantial certainty”. If you’re thinking that that rolls off the tongue, you’re correct. When you actually want to sue someone for civil battery in the real world, however, you need more specific criteria than that. In California — as I described in my previous post linked above — the criteria for civil battery can be found in the So v. Shin case (cite: So v. Shin (2013) 212 Cal.Appl.4th 652, 669) as: defendant touched plaintiff, or caused plaintiff to be touched with the intent to harm or offend plaintiff, plaintiff did not consent to the touching, plaintiff was harmed or offended by defendant’s conduct, and a reasonable person in plaintiff’s position would have been offended by the touching. Under New York law, the comparable criteria for civil battery are: defendant intentionally made bodily contact against the plaintiff, that this contact was harmful or offensive to the plaintiff, that plaintiff did not consent to the contact, and These criteria are recited in a number of New York state cases including (1) Wende C. v. United Methodist Church...
by Andy Chen | Mar 8, 2020 | Evidence, New York, Statutes... and stuff
In this post, I’m going to continue my tour of the various evidence privileges under New York law. In prior posts, I’ve gone over privileges such as the Clergy Privilege. In this post, I’m going to go over a less well-known privilege, and that’s the Library Records Privilege under section 4509 of New York’s Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR). In short, this privilege forbids the disclosure of any information tending to show what a person reads at a library, how they use the library, etc. In case you’re wondering, California does have a similar privilege although it isn’t under the California Evidence like other evidence privileges, but rather it’s under the Government Code. For example, see Section 6267 of the California Government Code. New York CPLR section 4509 provides as follows: Library records, which contain names or other personally identifying details regarding the users of public, free association, school, college and university libraries and library systems of this state, including but not limited to records related to the circulation of library materials, computer database searches, interlibrary loan transactions, reference queries, requests for photocopies of library materials, title reserve requests, or the use of audio-visual materials, films or records, shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed except that such records may be disclosed to the extent necessary for the proper operation of such library and shall be disclosed upon request or consent of the user or pursuant to subpoena, court order or where otherwise required by statute. I’ve bolded and underlined several portions that are exceptions to the general rule that library records cannot be disclosed to anyone. First,...
by Andy Chen | Mar 6, 2020 | Evidence, New York, Statutes... and stuff
In several prior posts, I’ve gone over various evidence privilege under New York law. Many people have heard of the attorney-client privilege, for example. In prior posts, I’ve gone over New York’s Library Records privilege as well as the Psychologist-Patient privilege. Speaking broadly, an evidence privilege is something that forbids the disclosure or use of information that would otherwise be admissible as evidence in a court case or other legal dispute. The logic behind an evidence privilege is that a more important purpose (e.g. obtaining necessary medical treatment sooner) will be served if a person is able to speak freely with, for example, their doctor or lawyer if they don’t have to worry that what they say could be used against them somehow. In this post, I’m addressing another privilege, namely the Rape Crisis Counselor privilege under section 4510 of New York’s Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR). Section 4510(b) describes the privilege as: “A rape crisis counselor shall not be required to disclose a communication made by his or her client to him or her, or advice given thereon, in the course of his or her services nor shall any clerk, stenographer or other person working for the same program as the rape crisis counselor or for the rape crisis counselor be allowed to disclose any such communication or advice given thereon nor shall any records made in the course of the services given to the client or recording of any communications made by or to a client be required to be disclosed, nor shall the client be compelled to disclose such communication or records…” Section 4510(b) then...
by Andy Chen | Mar 4, 2020 | Evidence, New York, Statutes... and stuff
In this post, I’m going to continue my tour of the various evidence privileges recognized under New York law. Broadly speaking, an “evidence privilege” is something that forbids the disclosure or use of information that would otherwise be evidence in a legal dispute. The rationale behind evidence privileges is that there is a broader and more beneficial goal that would be served by allowing a person to not have to worry about whether what they say could be used against them later in a legal dispute. Many people have heard of the attorney-client privilege before, for example. The rationale is that the client — and society as a whole, hopefully — will be better off if a client can speak freely with their attorney without worrying that what they say might be used against them later. The topic of this post will be New York’s Psychologist-Patient privilege under section 4507 of New York’s Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR). The rationale is that in order to get the best possible medical treatment as quickly as possible, a patient needs to be able to speak freely and candidly with their psychologist without worrying that what they say could be used against them later. Like any privilege, however, there are exceptions which I will discuss later on. Anyway, CPLR Section 4507 provides as follows: “The confidential relations and communications between a psychologist registered under the provisions of article one hundred fifty-three of the education law and his client are placed on the same basis as those provided by law between attorney and client, and nothing in such article shall be construed to...
