Court narrows judge's defamation lawsuit against Daily News

A judge in New York may proceed with part of his defamation lawsuit against the New York Daily News and columnist Errol Louis, but his claims against a lawyer who criticized him were dismissed, the New York Law Journal reported Friday.

The judge presiding over the case narrowed the claim against the Daily News to one article the court determined might have led readers to believe Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Larry D. Martin was corrupt, according to the New York Law Journal. That article, which referred to "the case of Justice Larry Martin," might have caused a reader to believe Martin was under investigation, presiding Justice Martin Shulman found.

Shulman dismissed claims regarding blog posts Louis wrote and a second article that mentioned Martin once, the New York Law Journal reported. The court also dismissed defamation claims against attorney Ravi Batra, finding he did not control the potentially defamatory article and that comments he posted in response to Louis’s blog posts were not defamatory.