Work-related email accounts are ubiquitous and often are used by employees for personal reasons. Employees also may use their own personal email accounts on employer provided resources ? with or without the permission of the employer.  Many cases have considered the right of an employer to access an employee’s email accounts from the employee’s work

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Traditionally in New York, law guardians appointed in custody disputes were often viewed as taking on a role similar to that of a guardian ad litem, advocating for what they believed to be the best interests of the child, rather than advocating for the outcome desired by the child. Because these law guardians were often

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Much has been written (in this column and elsewhere) regarding lawyers’ adoption of social media and other Internet enabled applications for such diverse purposes as discovery, advertising, client communication,  research and the like.  Indeed, due to the proliferation of portable devices, including laptops, smartphones and tablets, whether in their offices or not, lawyers now rely

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In legal malpractice actions, in order to establish entitlement to relief plaintiffs are generally required to demonstrate that their attorneys were negligent?that is, that they breached their duty of care. While no expert evidence is required to show that the attorney breached his or her duty of care where the “ordinary experience of the fact

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Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.[1]

It is a lesson that lawyers should take to heart when incorporating technology in their every day best practices.  Technology may have changed the speed, immediacy, and even the formality of communication, but the effect of the communication will be determined by its content as interpreted by

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A party who voluntarily discontinues an underlying action and foregoes an appeal does not abandon his or her right to pursue a claim for legal malpractice.

While a party who agrees to dismiss an appeal pursuant to a settlement agreement may, under some circumstances, be precluded from pursuing a legal malpractice claim against

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It should be no surprise that the continuing growth of social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn has led to questions about its use by members of the legal community, including members of the judiciary. In fact, New York’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics[1] has just issued another opinion[2] exploring the ethical constraints

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In a case that has far-reaching ramifications because of the exponential expansion of cyberspace in general, and because of the growth of commerce over the Internet in particular, the New York Court of Appeals has rejected challenges by two major online retailers to New York’s “Internet tax,”[1] which requires collection of a sales tax on

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Various social media tools, from TwitPic and Instagram to Flickr and Pheed, enable ? indeed, encourage ? users to post their photos online.[1]  Posting a “real time” image from the Mideast, a political event, the Super Bowl, or a snowstorm can be informative and even exhilarating for both the poster and the viewer.  However, there

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Under New York law, service of process may be effected by: (1) personal service; (2) delivery to “a person of suitable age and discretion at the actual place of business, dwelling place or usual place of abode of the person to be served” and mail; (3) service on an agent; or (4) so-called “nail and

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