The Law Offices of Alan J. Rich, LLC

We are proud of our history of successfully standing up for the rights of our clients and getting results. We've even successfully litigated cases to stop large bullying law firms from "working the system" to wear down the "little guy." Our precedent setting trial and appellate cases have been cited hundreds of times by courts and other lawyers. We bring the same zeal to every case and every assignment. Many of our cases have been featured in national media, law journals and professional journals. Attorney Rich began his career working for, and learning from, a couple the legal giants of their era, Harry Lipsig, who the NY Times referred to as the "King of Torts" and Joe Kelner, known for successfully fighting some of the toughest defendants in the country. Here are just a few samples of successful cases where the Rich Law Firm has represented plaintiffs at trial and on appeal for over 30 years in injury, discrimination, employment and disability rights cases. Hyperlinks are to reported opinions and to media accounts. Also, Rich's language skills in Spanish, French and American Sign Language have enabled him to better represent these clients from the beginning up through trial. He has been featured on numerous networks as a legal expert and to discuss his cases.

● Rivera v. Lutheran Medical Center from New York Law Journal – LAW.COM, October 28, 2008, NYLJ, p.1., "Morgan Lewis Disqualified From Representing Non-Party Hospital Witnesses in Litigation." In discrimination and retaliation case, “Plaintiff moved to disqualify defendants' law firm, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, from representing former and current Lutheran Medical Center [LMC] employees who LMC identified as witnesses in plaintiff's suit. Rich argued the firm violated the Code of Professional Responsibility in soliciting these non-party witnesses as clients. The court found these were non-parties witnesses had no potential legal exposure in this case and were solicited by Morgan Lewis merely "to gain tactical advantage in the litigation by insulating them from any direct contact with plaintiff's counsel." The Court ruled this conduct was "particularly egregious, since Morgan Lewis, by violating the Code [of ethics] in soliciting these witnesses as clients, effectively did an end run around the laudable policy consideration of promoting the importance of informal Discovery practices in litigation.” Thus, plaintiff's motion to disqualify the firm from representing certain witnesses was granted.  Having found defense counsels' actions ethical rules that attorneys must follow, the Court found itself obligated to "report Morgan Lewis' misconduct to the Disciplinary Committee." See, Note 6 at Rivera v. Lutheran Medical Center, 22 Misc.3d 178 (Sup. Ct., Kings Cty. 2008) affd. 73 A.D.3d 891 (2d Dept 2010, affirming trial court determination that defense counsels' actions violated the Rules of Professional Responsibiity, the basis for their disqualification). In the underlying action, the Court denied defendants’ motion to dismiss retaliation and disability claims of employee under NYC and NY State Human Rights Laws. Plaintiff, an employee of defendant hospital, was fired after his deaf sister-in-law settled her discrimination case for $200,000 against Plaintiff's employer, a hospital that failed to provide her a sign language interpreter during her 5 day admission. Rivera's claim settled for a significant undisclosed amount.

● Loeffler v. Staten Island Univ. Hosp., 582 F. 3d 268 (2d Cir. 2009); U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed District Court’s dismissal of negligence and civil rights actions under federal, New York state and city laws for damages by a deaf patient, his deaf wife and their minor children with normal hearing. The deaf parents were denied the right to sign language interpreters and the hospital compelled minor children to interpret for their deaf parents, even following their deaf father’s stroke. Case settled for an amount the parties agreed to publicly disclose as a seven-figure amount. This was a ground breaking precedent--the first time the Second Circuit appeals Court held that the New York City Human Rights Law "must be reviewed independently from and 'more liberally' than their federal and state counterparts."

● See also, analysis of Loeffler case jurisprudence in Univ. Of Chicago Law Review article, “Revitalizing the Law That Preceded the Movement: Associational Discrimination and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,” Chamusco B., 84 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1285 (2017), SI Advance, Oct. 16, 2009.

●  Delano-Pyle v. Victoria County, Texas, 302 F.3d 567 (5th Cir. 2002) US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld Rich's trial verdict in US District Court, Southern District of Texas, finding civil rights violations resulting in wrongful arrest and imprisonment of a deaf driver suspected of intoxication. The jury found that the Victoria County Sheriff observed that the deaf Plaintiff could not hear his instructions but administered an oral field sobriety test anyway. Houston Chronicle, July 30, 2000.

●   Morsette v. Final Call, 278 A.D.2d 81 (1st Dep't 2000) denial of defendants’ summary judgment motion in a libel action determining that altering plaintiff’s photo to depict her in prison garb by Nation of Islam official newspaper, was question of fact for jury. $1.3 million verdict in Plaintiff’s favor, NY Daily News, June 8, 2001, subsequently modified at 309 A.D.2d 249 (1st Dep't 2003).

●  Owens v. Comcast Corp., (2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23498, E.D.Pa. 2004) denial of summary judgment in a race and retaliation claim by an employee news reporter for failure to promote to news anchor against employer Comcast, a top 50 company in the Fortune 500.

●  Velez v. QVC, Inc., 227 F.Supp.2d 384 (E.D.Pa. 2002) denial of summary judgment to television shopping network in claim by minority show hosts for discriminatory termination and failure to promote where network had history of refusing to feature minority on-air hosts during daytime and prime-time time slots. NY Times, 1998 and 1999.

●  Bravin v. Mount Sinai Med. Center, 186 F.R.D. 293 (S.D.N.Y.1999) finding deaf plaintiff husband of non-disabled wife, entitled to reasonable accommodation under the ADA, federal Rehabilitation Act, NY State and NY City Human Rights Laws to participate in his wife's Lamaze classes through sign language interpretive services because the " benefit or service, was open to a person without a disability," and, therefore, defendant hospital could not "deny access to that benefit or service to a person with a disability." NY Times, Apr. 17, 1999. [subj to partial reconsideration]

●  Green v. Tyson, (Sup. Ct., NY Cty., Ind. 16850/1989),  successful assault and battery trial verdict on behalf of world-ranked boxing contender Mitch "Blood" Green against former heavyweight boxing champion, Mike Tyson, arising from a Harlem street fight about a dispute about a pay disparity in their prior boxing match at Madison Square Garden that resulted in a 12 round decision for Tyson . NY Daily News, Sep. 30, 1997. 

●  Mohamed v. Marriott Intern., Inc., 905 F. Supp. 141 (SDNY, Sweet, J., 1995, No. 94 CIV. 2336, denial of motion for summary judgment in disability discrimination termination case); 1996 WL 103838 (not for repub.) 5 Am. Disab. Cas. 940 (BNA) (Mar. 8, 1996, Court granted Plaintiff's motion to compel examination of employer's manager's sign language interpreting skills where manager claimed that deaf employee Plaintiff confessed to theft in ASL and, where examination demonstrated manager had no interpreting skills).