Finally A Judge Who Spanks The New York City Transit Authority!

Sure it does not happen to often. In fact in my twenty years of practice I have seen it only a handful of times. What I have seen is the municipalities often litigate as though there was no rules for exchange of discovery. When my adversary is a representative of a municipality or an authority(like the Transit Authority) I really feel like there is only one person playing by the rules. What makes matters worse is when the tactics of my adversary are presented to a court, to often they are not treated the way I might be treated if my firm exhibited the same tactics. Now I would be remiss if I didn't say that there are some judges who really enforce the rules of discovery. However, that is the exception and not the general rule. Judge Robert Miller of Brooklyn Supreme Court is the exception. In a written decision he ordered the Transit Authority to pay $15,000.00 to the plaintiffs attorney for their work in attempting over a three year period to get documents relating to an accident case. You can read about the details of the case here. Judge Miller stated in his opinion that the Authority had a total disregard for their obligations under New York's discovery rules.