Civil Litigation, Trials & Appeals

Esseks, Hefter & Angel, LLP represents clients at all levels of civil litigation, from the planning and commencement of an action, through the conduct of trials and hearings, to the briefing and argument of appeals. The firm's attorneys have appeared as counsel of record in over 250 published opinions from the Federal and State courts, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the U.S. District Courts of New York, the N.Y. Court of Appeals and Appellate Divisions, and the N.Y. Supreme Court and Surrogate's Court.

The firm's caseload involves diverse subject areas, but the firm is selective in the cases it brings and defends. Some of the firm's areas of litigation include:

• contested real estate transactions, including breached contracts of sale, option agreements, leases, and easements
• title disputes and contested claims to real property, such as adverse possession and prescriptive easement claims and claims involving riparian rights
• "Article 78" proceedings involving governmental decisions on zoning, environmental, wetlands, and other matters 
• wills, trusts, and estates disputes, including will contests and fiduciary claims
• constitutional land use claims, such as "takings," equal protection, and due process claims
• commercial and corporate disputes
• employment claims and
• construction disputes.