Thursday, November 26, 2009

Beis din can't violate right to counsel


Law.com

A Brooklyn judge has thrown out a rabbinical court's arbitration award, finding that the court's refusal to allow the claimant to select his own counsel violated New York law, notwithstanding the fact that the claimant participated in the proceeding without objection.

The decision constitutes the first time a New York court has addressed in a written opinion the issue of whether an arbitration panel can require that attorneys appearing before them must receive their approval.

It is also a rare reversal of an arbitration award, in which even mistakes of fact and misapplications of the law are insufficient grounds for reversal.

Here, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Martin Schneier ruled that the rabbinical tribunal's disqualification without explanation of plaintiff Joseph Kahan's attorney, coupled with the panel's insistence on designating Kahan's counsel, violated the CPLR's arbitration procedural requirements. [...]

http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2009/2009_29465.htm

1 comment :

  1. More accurately:

    The court was not telling the Battei Din what they may or may not do.

    It was, however, telling them that the court would not enforce their judgment.

    ReplyDelete

ANONYMOUS COMMENTS WILL NOT BE POSTED!
please use either your real name or a pseudonym.