Areas of Practice

Title Insurance Claims

Title insurance protects an owner's or lender's interest in real property against
covered title defects, encumbrances, or liens. When a policyholder's interest is
challenged, a title insurer will pay for its defense as it is insured, or indemnify the
policyholder for the actual monetary loss incurred, up to the amount of the policy.
Title claims cover a wide range of legal issues, requiring a thorough understanding
of real-property law, and the facts presented by each claim. Since Dollinger,
Gonski & Grossman's formation, title insurers have regularly hired us to defend
policyholders against myriad claims, involving, among others, adverse possession,
boundary-line disputes, mortgage-priority issues, recording defects, forged
documents, heirship claims, mapping and surveying errors, restrictive covenants,
easements and servitudes, and riparian rights. In addition to our extensive
experience litigating title-insurance claims, we have litigated policy-coverage
issues, and defalcation actions on behalf of title insurers.

Real Estate Litigation

Disputes over the ownership, use and enjoyment of real property- like land itself-
vary. How those disputes are resolved, and, more importantly, how a person's
real-property claim is presented and litigated, depends on a thorough
understanding of real-property law, and civil procedure. Whether an easement was
created by implied grant or implied reservation, whether land use is subject to a
restrictive covenant or a servitude, or whether the municipality in which the land in
question is located uses a grantor-grantee index or a block-and-lot index, may
seem to some like esoteric questions out of a law-school exam. But for us, these,
and numerous others, are questions we regularly litigate in an area broadly
defined as real-estate litigation.

Appellate Advocacy

You hire a lawyer to handle your case. You win your case and the other side
appeals. Or you lose, and you want to appeal. Appellate advocacy is a specialized
area of litigation requiring persuasive legal-writing and oral-argument skills, as
well as a complete understanding of the legal issues involved and the facts of the
case. Generally, litigants have broad rights to appeal from interlocutory orders,
and final judgments. Lawyers often refer appeals to those who regularly practice
in the appellate courts. Aside from our extensive trial-level practice, our firm has
an equally extensive appellate practice. We have argued cases in all
appellate-level courts in New York and New Jersey, been cited as counsel on over
200 appellate-level decisions, and been consulted by, and assist other attorneys
on appeals. Should an appeal be required or filed in any of our cases, our clients
are assured that we can handle it.