201410.23
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Partner
Phone: (631) 873-4888
fax: (631) 873-4889
email: sdelucasjdfirm.com

Sal has been associated with the firm since 2000 and became a partner in 2007.  He has extensive experience in a wide range of legal issues. He concentrates his practice in civil litigation, including general liability matters, insurance coverage disputes and commercial litigation.  Sal concentrates part of his practice in the areas of municipal, retail and restaurant liability.  Sal focuses on a wide range of matters including premises liability, civil rights litigation, labor law accidents, motor vehicle accidents, intentional torts, contract disputes and banking lawsuits. Sal litigates extensively in the federal courts of New York and Connecticut.  Sal has handled appellate matters before the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division in the First and Second Departments.  His prior experience includes working as an in-house attorney with an insurance company.

Martindale-Hubbell gave Sal its highest rating – AV Preeminent – in the areas of Personal Injury, Litigation and Education Law, the highest peer review rating available. According to Martindale-Hubbell “AV Preeminent is a significant rating accomplishment – a testament to the fact that a lawyer’s peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.” Martindale-Hubbell’s Peer Review Ratings reflect a combination of achieving a Very High General Ethical standards rating and a Legal Ability numerical rating. A threshold number of responses is required to achieve a rating. The General Ethical standards rating denotes adherence to professional standards of conduct and ethics, reliability, diligence and other criteria relevant to the discharge of professional responsibilities. Those lawyers who meet the “Very High” criteria of General Ethical Standards can proceed to the next step in the ratings process – Legal Ability. Lawyers who receive the AV Preeminent status have been awarded the highest ratings for their professional ethics and legal ability by their peers. Fewer than 8% of attorneys achieve an AV Preeminent rating.

Sal is the Vice President of a not-for-profit corporation geared toward assisting local youth.  He is an active youth sports coach, regularly coaching football and baseball.

Sal’s reported cases include:

    • Feder v. Target Stores, 15 F.Supp.3d 253,  (E.D.N.Y. 2013), in which the court ruled that the property owner was an absentee landlord and, therefore, not a proper defendant;

    • Stephanides v. BJ'S Wholesale Club, Inc., 2013 WL 1694901 (E.D.N.Y. 2013), in which the court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment in an action where the plaintiff claimed she slipped on fruit;

    • Scelzo v. Acklinis Realty Holding, LLC, 101 A.D.3d 468 (1st Dep't 2012), in which the court determined that no duty was owed to the plaintiff by a tenant for an accident in the common area notwithstanding the landlord's claims that the lease was amended to confer such an obligation upon the tenant;

    • Tong v. Target Corporation, 83 A.D.3d 1046 (2d Dep't 2011); denied, 17 N.Y.3d 712 (2011), in which the court determined that plaintiff attempted to circumvent the statute of limitations and otherwise failed to state a claim for discrimination;

    • Massimino v. Target Corporation, 82 A.D.3d 941 (2d Dep't 2011) in which the court dismissed plaintiff's claims due to an ongoing storm in progress;

    • Gutierrez-Bonilla v. Target Corporation, 2009 WL5062116 (E.D.N.Y. 2009) in which the court rejected the spoliation of evidence arguments raised by plaintiff, finding that defendant disposed of its surveillance footage from the date of the accident in the ordinary course of business;

    • Casiano v. Target Corporation, 2008 WL3246836 (E.D.N.Y. 2008) in which the court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment in a slip and fall action involving dried laundry detergent;

    • Casiano v. Target Corporation, 2008 WL3930558 (E.D.N.Y. 2008) in which the court rejected the attempts by plaintiff's expert to demand an $8,000 flat fee for testifying at a deposition and instead imposed a fee of $400 per hour as suggested by defendant;

    • Zabbia v. Westwood, LLC, 18 A.D.3d 542 (2d Dep't 2005), which reversed the denial of summary judgment in a slip and fall action involving black ice;

    • Thornhill v. A.B. Volvo, 304 A.D.2d 651 (2d Dep't. 2003), which affirmed the dismissal of claims due to plaintiff's spoliation of evidence in a products liability action;

    • Horn v. Hernandez, N.Y.L.J. Oct. 15, 2003, at 19 (Sup. Ct. Suffolk County 2003), in which the trial court rejected the argument that the enactment of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) pre-empted the court's authority to compel production of psychiatric records.

 

Areas Of Practice
General Liability Litigation
Commercial Litigation
Banking Litigation
Insurance Coverage Litigation
Appellate Advocacy
Bar Admissions
Connecticut, 1999
New York, 2000
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, 2001
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 2001
U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York, 2008
U.S. District Court, Western District of New York, 2013
U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, 2013
Education
St. John's University, School of Law, Jamaica, New York, 1999
Juris Doctor
University Law Scholarship recipient
Honors: Dean's List
State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook,
New York, 1996
B.A. in Political Science
Honors: Dean's List
Professional Associations
New York State Bar Association
Suffolk County Bar Association

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