The Practice Review, written by Professor David D. Siegel, is a four-page monthly summary of developments in New York civil practice available through WESTLAW. Prior to September 2007, it was available in a print edition and on the present website, siegelspractice review , but then became accessible to new subscribers only through WESTLAW. (The WESTLAW database identifier for the review is "SIEGELPR".)
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At the end of 1992 the New York State Law Digest,
a monthly publication of the New York State Bar Association edited
by Professor Siegel, had for reasons of space to discontinue coverage
of matters of general practice and procedure and return to the function
of reporting only Court of Appeals cases. The Practice Review took
over the general practice coverage and expanded it.
STATUTES
AND CASES TRACKED
Caselaw and both statutory and rule developments
are closely tracked in the Practice Review. When there are extensive
changes, the Practice Review offers extensive coverage.
CURRENT AND
CHOICE
The Practice Review stays right on top of procedural
developments, alerting lawyers promptly. Lawyers who keep up with
the Practice Review learn about new things, and new twists on old
things, before they are allowed to become problems.
LETTERS
AND CASES FROM LAWYERS AND JUDGES
The Practice Review has a file of slip sheet
cases as well as letters from lawyers and judges confronting problems
in daily practice. From these letters and cases, often unreported,
come lessons that the SPR summarizes about easily overlooked procedural
pitfalls.
SELECTION
PROCESS
The Practice Review sifts through the mountain
of constantly accumulating caselaw and selects only the most instructive
items. It helps spare the practitioner the difficult labor of deciding
what is and what is not important. It stresses current issues and
problems that hide in unlikely places.
THE FEAR
OF ERROR
Good lawyers carry with them the fear of error.
It is the main mission of the Practice Review to report -- and advise
-- on things that can reduce that fear.
WARNINGS
WHEN CASES CONFLICT
The Practice Review often reports on conflicts
among the courts on points of procedure -- especially when the risk
of following the more lenient of two decisions is more subtle than
obvious, It points up the sometimes hidden consequences of taking
the easy way out.
FREQUENCY
The Practice Review is published monthly, with
a periodic extra edition as needed when procedural developments
warrant it. There have been a number of extras published.
Issues 106 and 108, for example, were extras for March and April
in 2001, special editions covering developments in federal practice
of particular interest to New York practitioners.
CROSS-REFERENCES
Cross-references between the Practice Review and Siegel, New York Practice (4th Ed.) (the " Treatise "), are frequent. They enable readers to refer quickly to the appropriate section of the Treatise for background on an item contained in the Review; and, conversely, by presenting more expansive treatment of a given point, the Review makes it possible for the Treatise , with a simple cross-reference, to call attention to matters that would otherwise be beyond the scope of a single-volume work.
WESTLAW LINKS:
WESTLAW offers "links" both ways between the Treatise and the Review . Just click on any citation that the SPR issue makes to any Treatise section and the cited section appears on the screen immediately; similarly, click on any citation that the Treatise makes to any Review issue and the cited issue appears on the screen immediately.) (The WESTLAW identifier for the Treatise is "SIEGEL-NYPRAC"; for the Review , as already noted, the WESTLAW identifier it's "SIEGELPR".) And the usual WESTLAW links to cases and statutes cited in the text (of both the Treatise and the Review) remain a prime time-saving feature.
FEDERAL MATTERS
The Practice Review periodically covers federal
trouble spots--things like those highlighted in Chapter 23 of the
hornbook, entitled: "Federal Practice Reviewed and Compared: Parallels
and Pitfalls"--especially for issues that involve the interplay
of state and federal practice, as in removal cases. When Federal
Rule 4, on federal process service, was extensively amended, the
Practice Review did a 7-part series on the changes (SPR 12-18).
