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Evidence Spring 2024

Mazella v. Beals

This opinion was authored by Judge Jenny Rivera, former CUNY professor (1997-2013), clerk to Justice Sotomayor, and now judge on the New York Court of Appeals.

The case does a nice job of digging in on a Rule 403-style analysis of the probative value and risk of prejudice of a piece of evidence.  

Feel free to skim the facts (highlighted) – all you need to know is that the wife of a deceased man sued the doctor who had been treating her husband, alleging that the doctor failed to properly care for her husband and that led to her husband’s suicide.