Sunday, April 24, 2016

NYCOA Judge Pigott: Dissenting Opinion Patterns (presentation)

By Eric Brenner
Eric Brenner is a second-year student at Albany Law School and graduated with honors from Siena College in 2014 with a degree in Finance.  Eric is the Executive Managing Editor for Volume 80 of the Albany Law Review.  He has served as a judicial intern in U.S. District Court for both the Hon. Lawrence E. Kahn and the Hon. Charles J. Siragusa.  Additionally, Eric has been a teaching assistant and research assistant at Albany Law. 
This presentation was prepared for Professor Bonventre’s Court of Appeals Intensive Seminar.

Before beginning research, I was aware that Judge Pigott has been one of the Court's more frequent dissenters. In his 10 most recent authored dissents, 9 were in criminal cases. Of these, Judge Pigott dissented alone in 6.  His dissents appear to focus on policy concerns, practicality, and giving deference to the trial court. Judge Pigott’s dissents are very articulate in the way in which they examine the precedents and the facts in the record.

(click on any slide to enlarge)