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On a recent day, Yale Pollack, a labor and employment attorney, took part in an at once typical and very unusual conference call with a judge, law clerk, and opposing attorney in a wage and hour case.
Ordinarily, this would have taken place in a courtroom. But court conferences, depositions, and plans for discovery these days often are being handled via videoconference or over the phone.
“Today, I have another on the phone,” said Pollack, a sole practitioner in Syosset who leads the Law Offices of Yale Pollack P.C., which he founded in 2015. “This may be more permanent. I think courts can manage calendars better with the way this progressed. They get to cases a lot faster.”
While labor and employment cases ranging from owed overtime to discrimination slowed during the peak of the pandemic, cases are resuming and beginning to move more quickly, as courts often shift to online sessions and mediation referrals.
“The courts were closed. That put a halt on litigation and paused judges pushing forward on discovery and moving things along,” said Pollack, who worked at some of Long Island’s larger firms before launching his own. “Things were at a standstill from about April 2020 until late 2020. It’s picking up again.”
As many workers shifted to remote work, going on unemployment following furloughs, Pollack said there were fewer claims.
“When the remote work started, you...
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