Law Offices of Pardalis & Nohavicka, LLP

09/09/2026

09/09/2026

The best trial lawyers don't win with theatrics, they win with discipline. Swipe through the timeless lessons from Francis Wellman's 1903 classic, The Art of Cross-Examination, covering the power of preparation, the discipline of knowing exactly when to stop, and how to calibrate your approach to an honest witness versus a hostile one. Whether you're in a courtroom, a boardroom, or an internal investigation, these principles on careful questioning still hold up over a century later.

09/08/2026

A former NYT employee signed a severance agreement, collected her full payout, then sued for discrimination anyway. Swipe through this new NY Supreme Court decision to see why her signature ultimately doomed her case, how one carve-out clause protecting her right to discuss discrimination saved the company's release, and what this means for both employers drafting agreements and employees signing them. If severance is on the table for you, this is exactly what to read before you sign.

09/07/2026

For years, New York employers faced massive exposure just for paying manual workers bi-weekly instead of weekly. Swipe through this new SDNY decision to see why the court upheld the legislature's retroactive ban on liquidated damages for these claims, why employees didn't have a "vested right" to that money, and what this means for pending wage frequency lawsuits. If your company is facing one of these class actions, this ruling drastically changes the math on settlement value.

09/04/2026

For generations, the legal profession maintained a polite fiction: judges don't make law, they just "find" it. In 1921, Benjamin Cardozo shattered that illusion in "The Nature of the Judicial Process." He revealed that when precedent runs out, judges fill gaps using competing forces—logic, history, tradition, and social welfare—and that judges are humans swayed by subconscious bias and the "spirit of the age." Swipe to see why this book still matters.

09/03/2026

Law school teaches you evidence rules. It rarely teaches you how to talk to a witness. For that, you need Francis Wellman's 1903 classic, "The Art of Cross-Examination." Built from real courtroom experience, it's still the definitive guide to witness psychology and knowing when to stop—before one extra question ruins everything. Swipe through for Wellman's timeless lessons on preparation, restraint, and letting the witness supply the key admissions.

09/02/2026

A late disclaimer doesn't always doom the carrier. A plaintiff tried to win summary judgment by arguing an insurer disclaimed coverage too slowly, invoking NY's strict "as soon as reasonably possible" rule. A Queens court disagreed—that statutory hammer applies only to bodily injury or death claims, and this case had neither. The plaintiff also failed to timely raise common-law estoppel, saving the carrier's disclaimer. Swipe to see what this means for adjusters.

09/01/2026

A h**p license doesn't shield you from a ma*****na raid. A new appellate decision reversed an injunction on warrantless inspections of NY smoke shops, ruling cannabis is a "closely regulated industry"—so the state's regulatory scheme satisfies the Fourth Amendment without a warrant. The court also rejected the argument that a h**p license blocks inspection, and held businesses must exhaust administrative remedies before challenging search tactics in court.

08/31/2026

Deepfakes are about to get worse. Scholars warn "deepest fakes",AI media with zero digital artifacts are coming, and no expert or software will ever detect them. Some are panicking, proposing judges alone screen evidence or banning digital media outright. A new law review article says: not so fast. Evidence law has survived identical panics before, from faked photographs to plain old perjury. The real defense was never detection—it's cross-examination.

08/28/2026

A plaintiff tried to win their case just by proving the insurer's disclaimer came in late, and the court said not so fast. Swipe through this Queens County decision to see why NY's strict "as soon as reasonably possible" disclaimer rule only applies to bodily injury and death claims, why this carrier's delay didn't doom their defense, and why common-law estoppel is still a risk adjusters can't ignore. A must-know distinction for anyone handling coverage denials in New York.