The New York Legal Blog Round Up

The weekend is over, and it's time for the weekly round up of interesting posts from my fellow New York legal bloggers. 

But, first, I wanted to thank all of you for your support and for putting up with my multiple posts about the 2007 Weblog awards last week.  It was much appreciated!

And, now, without further ado, the round up:

A Buffalo Lawyer:

• COA's Harris decision is not retroactive (discusses 4th Dept. decision)

A Public Defender:

• Enforcing the right to effective assistance of counsel (not sure if Gideon is a NY blogger, but he discusses the NYCLU's announcement that it will commence a lawsuit here in NY alleging Constitutional violations by the State for its failure to provide adequate resources to public defenders)

Indignant Indigent:

• Appellate Review of Bargained for Sentences (discusses 4th Dept. decisions)

It's No-Fault of NY:

• Edwards Nofaulthands

Juz The Fax:

• New York Gets Tough On Worker Misclassification

Mental Disability Law Blog:

• Tom F. - Should a First Bite at Failure be Required in Special Education?

New York Attorney Malpractice Blog:

• Legal Malpractice, Appeal, Retrial and Settlement

New York Personal Injury Law Blog:

• Blawg Review #134 (an thorough and impressive round up with a NYC theme as its background)

New York Public Personnel Law:

• Vesting health insurance rights

No-Fault Paradise:

• No-Fault Insurance Wrap Up

Simple Justice:

• Politics and Parole

Wait a Second!:

• Canceling teen dances at nightclub may violate due process

Comments

[Gideon]

I know this isn't part of the legal blog roundup, but the NYCLU lawsuit challenging the state's indigent defense services is definitely interesting.

[NBlack]

Gideon--Thanks for the heads up! I added your post to the round up...

[Gideon]

I am licensed to practice in NY, but I am not a NY blogger :) I figured it would be interesting to your NY readers, especially those of a criminal justice persuasion.

[Scott Greenfield]

So you come to Niki's place to make fun of me, do ya?

This is a much more complicated problem than appears from the surface. There have been efforts made over the past few years to create a statewide system and deal with the politics and unintended consequences involved. This suit is a bull in a china shop, and it may well serve as the impetus to get the system finished or leave the system in shambles. I'm not sure which.

Rather than spout off about the suit, which clearly has merit as far as the problem is concerned, but offers nothing by way of solution, I have been considering its implications. It's too soon, in my opinion, to know whether this is good, bad or very bad.

It's not like we didn't know about the problem for a long time. But finding a solution that's better than the problem is a lot harder than just charging into the fray without having any idea whether the result will be better than the problem.