Susan M. Markenstein

• Commercial litigation; appellate practice; personal injury; insurance coverage litigation; consumer fraud; will drafting; elder law.

Highlights

• Achieved a $75,000 settlement in a casino slip and fall case.
• Defended successfully a pre-owned truck dealership in consumer fraud and breach of contract arbitrations and superior court motion practice.
• Achieved a favorable resolution for the plaintiff in a complex partnership dispute involving civil RICO allegations and other civil claims.
• Vacated a $600,000 final default judgment and negotiated a favorable settlement at a fraction of the original claim.
• Pursued denied insurance claims on behalf of commercial truck owners.
• Successfully enforced a settlement agreement between spouses from trial through appeal, preserving the client’s teachers’ pension from dilution.

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Managed a diverse caseload, including drafting and filing of initial and responsive pleadings, preparation of discovery demands and responses; discovery motions; motions for summary judgment; depositions; negotiations; settlement agreements; legal research through Lexis and Westlaw; appeals; client development and relations.

• Insurance Defense; Automobile Accidents; Personal Injury; Premises Liability
• Team attorney working collaboratively on a sizeable caseload of insurance defense cases
• Draft answers, prepare discovery responses; review and analyze medical reports; take depositions; write status reports; co-manage cases through the litigation process

• Personal Injury, Municipal Court; Family Law; Commercial Litigation; Elder Law; Wills; Probate.

Highlights

• Successfully pursued and achieved reinstatement of personal injury cases that had been dismissed for lack of prosecution far beyond one year.
• Prepared a winning argument and brief on behalf of a juvenile defendant to bar a wrongly obtained confession.
• Drafted a well-written brief in opposition to a dispositive motion in a workers compensation case.
• Authored a winning appellate brief in a matrimonial case involving complex issues related to international jurisdiction, service-of-process and default.
• Successfully prepared and argued motions in the law and family divisions.

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Drafted motions and legal briefs; conducted legal research through Lexis and Westlaw; prepared Medicaid applications; drafted wills; powers-of-attorney; advanced healthcare directives; conducted depositions; prepared appellate briefs; made court appearances in the law, family and probate divisions.

• Managed a full case load of family law matters, representing clients in all areas of domestic relations, including divorce, equitable distribution, non-dissolution, child custody, child support and domestic violence.

• Drafted pleadings, motions, and briefs in civil litigation matters.
• Prepared and responded to discovery demands.
• Conducted depositions.
• Appeared in court on behalf of civil litigation clients in a variety of pre-trial and summary judgment motions.

• Researched and drafted bench memoranda involving motions to suppress evidence, search and seizure, probable cause, bail hearings, sentencing and other criminal law issues.
• Conducted mediations in the landlord/tenant and small claims court.