Forman v. Henkin, 2015 NY Slip Op 09350 (App. Div. 1st Dept. Dec. 17, 2015), decided by the First Department on December 17, 2015, represents yet another data point in an evolving body of case law assessing whether a party to litigation is entitled to the other side’s social media postings. This issue typically arises in…
Read More First Department Limits Facebook Discovery in Personal Injury CaseYou may have heard that Al Sharpton’s daughter Dominique has sued the City of New York for $5 million to recover for injuries allegedly sustained in a trip-and-fall accident. Here’s her April 29, 2015 lawsuit. An article in yesterday’s NY Post noted that Ms. Sharpton “was a no-show [on Dec. 2, 2015] for the first court…
Read More Dominique Sharpton’s “No Show” in Her $5M Personal Injury Case Against the City of New YorkIn Spearin v. Linmar, L.P., 129 AD3d 528 (App. Div. 1st Dept. June 16, 2015), a personal injury case, the court addressed an issue that is coming up with increasing frequency: namely, the extent to which a plaintiff’s social media postings must be turned over in discovery. The court reversed a lower court decision that “ordered…
Read More Piano-Playing Plaintiff’s Facebook Posts Ordered for In-Camera InspectionA recent case, Gonzalez v. City of New York (decided by the Supreme Court, Queens County on May 4, 2015) represents yet another example of why parties to litigation – or persons who contemplate being a party to litigation – should refrain from posting on social media anything whatsoever concerning their claims. In this personal injury case,…
Read More Court Orders In Camera Inspection of Personal Injury Plaintiff’s Social Media PostingsThe law relating to the use of social media in litigation continues to evolve. A recent decision issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Caputi v. Topper Realty Corp. (decided Feb. 25, 2015), provides additional insight into how judges deal with this increasingly important issue. In Caputi, a wage-and-hour case, defendants…
Read More Court Allows Partial Access to Plaintiff’s Facebook AccountA recent Third Department decision, In the Matter of Sullivan v. Brookville Center for Children’s Services, affirmed a decision to award unemployment benefits to an employee who was terminated due to alleged disqualifying conduct, namely, posting on using social media during work hours. The court held: The question of whether a claimant engaged in actions…
Read More Violation of Company’s Social Media Policy Did Not Disqualify Worker From Receiving Unemployment BenefitsHere and below is the complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court on September 15, 2014 against a Queens and Long Island medical practice known as DocCare and its CEO Alan Bigman. Here’s the New York Post article on the lawsuit. Plaintiff, who worked for defendants as a medical assistant, alleges that defendant failed to pay plaintiff for…
Read More Plaintiff Sues for Wage/Overtime Violations After Being Fired, Ostensibly Because of Instagram Smoking PhotoBullying is bad, but free speech is important. That’s the (extremely simplified) gist of People v. Marquan M., a Court of Appeals Decision dated July 1, 2014. The court, in an opinion authored by Judge Graffeo, held that an Albany Law aimed at prohibiting “cyberbullying” was unconstitutional. The facts, according to the court: [Defendant], a student…
Read More NY Court of Appeals Strikes Down Albany’s “Cyberbullying” LawIn Del Gallo v. City of New York (decided June 17, 2014), a tragic personal injury case arising from death and injuries sustained from a falling Central Park tree branch (complaint here), the court ruled on plaintiffs’ motion for a protective order (under CPLR 3103) regarding certain discovery requests made by defendants. While the court discussed various items sought…
Read More Court Orders Limited Access to Plaintiff’s LinkedIn Account in Personal Injury CaseIn a recent decision in the wrongful death case of Reid v. Soults et al. (hat tip: Eric Turkewitz), a state trial court denied defendants’ motion to compel plaintiff to comply with their demand for discovery and inspection regarding a YouTube video depicting the decedent, and to compel a third party (the decedent’s brother, who publicly posted the…
Read More Court Determines YouTube Video of Decedent is Not Relevant in Wrongful Death Case