Articles Posted in Firm News

This Fall, Justice Douglas McKeon, the Administrative Judge of Bronx County, is heading up the Moore Advocates lecture series at Fordham Law School. This program features some of the finest and most successful trial lawyers in New York State lecturing about their field and demonstrating Trial Techniques to students and alumni of Fordham Law School. In addition to those who attended Fordham Law, the program is open to all practicing attorneys in New York. On September 12th Ben Rubinowitz and Evan Torgan joined Justice McKeon in speaking about Direct and Cross Examination. “Not only does Judge McKeon run one of the busiest Courts in the country but he still manages to find time to share his expertise with students and lawyers” said Rubinowitz. “I am delighted to have been asked to participate in the Program. It’s programs like these that make the Bar of the State of New York that much better.” Future speakers include, among others, Judy Livingston and Herald Price Fahringer.

From Left to right: Evan Torgan, Honorable Douglas McKeon and Ben Rubinowitz

In their most recent column, New York Personal Injury Attorney Ben Rubinowitz, a partner at Gair Gair Conason Steigman Mackauf Bloom and Rubinowitz, and his colleague Evan Torgan, of Torgan Cooper and Aaron, write about the use of video taped depositions at trial. Their most recent article, published Today in the New York Law Journal is “The Use Of Video Depositions At Trial“. Of note, the old fashioned ways of conducting depositions are fading fast. Technology has improved to the point where a written transcript alone might not be enough to carry the day at trial. Careful thought must be given as to whether the deposition should be conducted by video and whether or not it will help or hurt the case. Reasons for conducting the video deposition always include issues such as age, infirmity and location of the witness. But of equal importance is the fact that taking a video deposition might actually change the “behavior ” of an adversary. Those attorneys who typically defend depositions in an overly aggressive or nasty manner might have to rethink that tactic. Nasty and rude conduct that might be shown to a jury on video will unquestionably work to the defending attorney’s disadvantage. Additionally, the use of the video deposition allows the jury to recall far more than a mere reading of the transcript will. It has been empirically shown that both seeing, listening and hearing someone speak is far more effective than listening alone. Specific examples of strategies for use of video depositions at trial are used by the authors in this article.

In their most recent article in the New York Law Journal our Partner Ben Rubinowitz and his friend and colleague Evan Torgan write about the Collateral Attack of an Expert Witness. The authors point out that it is not enough to prepare for the adversarial collateral attack during cross examination but that it is equally important to scrutinize your own expert’s qualifications, independent of the information contained in his or her resume, to protect against a collateral attack. Specific examples are used to teach trial lawyers techniques to discredit the expert.

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