A neighbor puts a gate across the driveway you have used for years. A buyer learns that someone else has the right to cross the back of the lot. A parcel has no road frontage and no recorded way out. Each is an easement question: a right to use land that belongs to someone else.Read More…
Partition Actions in New York: Ordinary Partition vs. Heirs Property
You and your siblings inherited a parent’s house or the family camp. One of you wants to sell, another wants to keep it. The legal answer to that deadlock is a partition action, and New York has two sets of partition rules: the general statute in Article 9 of the Real Property Actions and ProceedingsRead More…
Served With an Arbitration Demand You Never Agreed To? How to Stop the Clock While a Court Decides
An arbitration demand has arrived, filed with the American Arbitration Association (AAA), and you do not believe you ever agreed to arbitrate with the party that sent it. Perhaps you never signed the contract it cites, or the document it relies on has no arbitration clause at all. New York law gives you a wayRead More…
What to Check Before You Sign a Severance Agreement in New York
Your employer has handed you a severance agreement — sometimes called a separation agreement — with a deadline to sign. Or you are the employer, and you want an agreement that will hold up. A severance agreement is a contract: the company gives you money or benefits, and you give up legal rights, usually includingRead More…
Are Non-Compete Agreements Enforceable in New York?
You signed a non-compete when you took the job — or you are the business owner who had every employee sign one — and now someone has left for a competitor. On both sides, the question is the same: does the agreement actually hold up? In New York, the answer is rarely a clean yesRead More…
