LIEB BLOG

Legal Analysts

Tuesday, December 08, 2020

NEW PODCAST: Keeping Your Property After Divorce

NEW PODCAST = Equitable distribution, maintenance, and all fancy legal terms explained with our expert Eric Wrubel, who discusses how to keep your kids inheritance away from the ex. #listentolieb #theLIEBCAST #divorces #realestateanddivorce 

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN




Monday, December 07, 2020

Lieb at Law, P.C. seeks Paralegal For Busy Real Estate Department (Smithtown Office)

Lieb at Law seeks digitally savvy, detail oriented and motivated real estate paralegal. Law firm conducts several real estate closings a day and represents buyers, sellers and lenders in residential and commercial real estate transactions. The firm is a paperless office with a focus on technology and substance. Must be able to work within cloud-based programs and be friendly, charismatic and organized.


The firm’s sister company, Lieb School is one of the largest real estate schools in the state offering continuing education classes to real estate brokers and salespersons. Candidates cannot be a practicing real estate salesperson / associate broker due to conflicts of interest. 

Responsibilities:

  • New business intake – opening and closing files and tracking / closing potential cases
  • Answering phones, distributing mail and deliveries, announcing visitors, maintaining office appearance, watering plants, cleaning after closings
  • Help manage digital calendar
  • Coordinating closings
  • Drafting and reviewing contracts of sale (if qualified)
  • Ordering and clearing title
  • Coordinating with brokers, surveyors, expeditors, lenders and other client-vendors
  • Client management
  • Maintaining files as always up-to-date through use of case management technology
  • Preparing closing statements
  • Helping Litigation team and Real Estate School when needed
  • Helping social media / marketing

Requirements:

  • No typos in cover letter and resume
  • Friendly
  • Willing to work outside scope
  • Required to be self-sufficient and take pride in your work-product
  • Detail-oriented / organized / multi-tasker
  • Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Google Calendar
  • Minimum of typing 60+ words per minute
  • Bachelor’s Degree from competitive school preferred
To apply, email cover letter and resume to careers@liebatlaw.com



NEW PODCAST: New Innovation Streamlines Divorce Proceedings

2021 is expected to be the War of the Roses. Find out how the pandemic has impacted families nationwide and backlogged the court system. We found a new solution. Divorcing couples and their counsel will no longer have to wait for the overburdened New York State court system to schedule a trial on financial issues related to their divorce. We bring on the founder of a brand new platform for litigants in a divorce or family law action to have financial issues heard by an experienced, neutral third party who will render a binding decision following the presentation of admissible evidence. 




Thursday, December 03, 2020

NEW PODCAST: The End of Ladies Night in NY

Stores Now Have To Follow New Gender-Neutral Pricing Laws. Just in time for the holidays. Let's see how this spreads throughout the country and learn the new criteria to avoid major fines for service providers and product retailers.






NEW PODCAST: Sports, Stadium Design & Crowd Management - Industry Updates and 2021 Plan

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Stop Speculating about Mandatory Vaccines. The Law is VERY Clear!

There is an EXPLOSION of 2 fundamental rights: Personal freedom and societal regulation. On #theLIEBCAST podcast, we review the substantive due process right to personal liberty and public health.

We look at a previous case from the 1905 smallpox public health crisis and discuss religious and disability exemptions. We discuss how the government has historically limited our liberties in regard to the safety of water quality, transportation, sewage and disease control. What does the country need to get herd immunity from COVID19 and get back to a new normal? #ListenToLieb





Thursday, November 19, 2020

Department of Justice Sues, then Settles, with NAR Concerning Anticompetitive MLS Practices

Today, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division announced the simultaneous commencement and settlement of antitrust and anticompetitive practice complaints against the National Association of Realtors. 

In its press release, found HERE, the DOJ identified four areas of anticompetitive practice which they allege "result[ed] in decreased competition among real estate brokers":

  1. Prohibiting local MLSs from disclosing to prospective buyers the amount of the commission earned by buyer brokers;
  2. Permitting buyer brokers to misrepresent to buyers that their buyer brokerage services are free;
  3. Enabling buyer brokers to filter MLS listings by the amount of buyer broker commission offered; and
  4. Preventing non-NAR brokers from accessing key lockboxes for homes listed on MLS.

The settlement will directly address these four issues in order to "enhance competition in the real estate market, resulting in more choice and better service for consumers." The proposed settlement can be found HERE and will be open for public comment once posted to the federal register. 

NAR has routinely found itself under antitrust scrutiny due to its overwhelmingly popular MLS platforms, which often are the only multiple listing platforms available in local markets. Three recent federal lawsuits filed against NAR have focused on NAR's policies regarding compensation for buyer brokers, alleging that buyer brokers are unable to compete on price due to the requirement that all listings on MLS offer some form of cooperating brokerage commission. It is alleged that these anticompetitive practices have driven up the overall cost of brokerage services for consumers by eliminating competition on the buyer broker side of the market. 

The announcement by the Department of Justice was silent with regard to whether any additional investigations into NAR were ongoing. 




Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Building Code Violation Law Passed in NYS

Starting on December 11, 2020 there will be time limits to remedy any determinations of building code violations in NYS per new law


The Real property Actions and Proceedings Law (RPAPL) 777(a) has been amended to ensure that no code violations or dangerous conditions remain outstanding for "more than sixty days from the date of the order of the court" if the owner (or mortgagee or liener) enters into a consent order to remedy the issue upon the petition being granted against such owner. 


We expect that this sixty day period will be applied by the various town / city / village attorneys in plea agreements as well. 


Now, there is a rush to fix unless good cause for delay can be shown.




NYS Passes Law to Increase Free Speech & Public Participation

Effective November 10, 2020, NYS strengthened its laws against lawsuits that are brought and intended to chill free speech, called Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation ("SLAPP suits"). 


NYS' prior anti-SLAPP / free speech law had been limited to protecting speech concerning "controversies over a public application or permit, usually in a real estate development situation." 


Now, the anti-SLAPP law deals with "anything other than a 'purely private matter.'" Additionally, the law now requires courts to provide costs and attorney's fees if a lawsuit against public petition and participation was initiated in bad faith to chill speech. 


The new laws are Civil Rights Law 70-a, which deals with the costs and attorney's fees, and Civil Rights Law 76-a, which expands the types of speech that is protected by the anti-SLAPP law. Specifically, Civil Rights Law 76-a now permits a suit concerning "[a]ny communication in a place open to the public or a public forum in connection with an issue of public interest; or ii. [a]ny other lawful conduct in furtherance of the exercise of the constitutional right of free speech in connection with an issue of public interest, or in furtherance of the exercise of the constitutional right of petition."


To read the full bill, click here








Tuesday, November 10, 2020

New Real Estate Brokerage Advertising Regulations

Are you ever confused about who the broker is when you search for property online? Thankfully, the NYS advertising regulations were just amended to adequately disclose to the consumer who the exclusive agent is. The specific updates are included in Andrew Lieb's latest article published in The Suffolk Lawyer, law journal. CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE.