Joel M. Cohen
How Judge Cohen rules, drawn from 25 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Cohen
Joel Cohen was appointed to the New York Court of Claims in 2018 and designated an acting New York State Supreme Court justice in New York County. He joined the Commercial Division in January 2019. Before taking the bench, he was a litigation partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell and earned degrees from Binghamton University and Georgetown University Law Center.
Judge Cohen's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Cohen, as published on the court's website (checked October 11, 2026). Judges revise these often, so confirm the current version on the court's site before you file.
Key rules
Sealing
A sealing or redaction motion may be made by order to show cause and must state whether it is opposed.
“Motions to seal and/or redact may be made by Order to Show Cause. The movant must indicate whether the motion is opposed or unopposed.”
Sealing
Provisional NYSCEF sealing expires after five days without a court order.
“The provisional sealing expires, absent court order, after five days.”
Sealing
Support sealing or redaction with an affidavit based on personal knowledge.
“The movant shall include an affidavit based on personal knowledge (i.e., not an attorney affidavit based on information and belief) attesting to the factual bases for sealing or”
Sealing
File a public redacted copy for each unredacted document submitted for sealing.
“For each unredacted document, the movant must file a corresponding public copy of the document as an Exhibit on NYSCEF reflecting the proposed redactions.”
How Judge Cohen decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In People v. National Rifle Association of America, Inc., Judge Cohen dismissed the state's dissolution claims, finding the complaint had not alleged the public harm needed for that remedy and noting the potential effect on members' speech and assembly rights.
“The Complaint does not allege the type of public harm that is the legal linchpin for imposing the ‘corporate death penalty.’ Moreover, dissolving the NRA could impinge, at least indirectly, on the free speech and assembly rights of its millions of members.”
In Landau v. DGital Media, LLC, he granted summary judgment dismissing a fraud claim with prejudice after the plaintiff acknowledged at deposition that he had doubted the email he claimed to have relied on.
“Landau admitted at his deposition that he was ‘very doubtful’ of the Siegel Email, agreeing that it ‘absolutely’ was a ‘suspension of reality.’”
In J.T. Magen & Company Inc. v. Nissan North America, Inc., he limited the Lien Law fee award to the portion of the lien he found willfully exaggerated, excluding fees attributable to the remainder.
“The Court has determined that willful exaggeration applies to $4,633,247.95 of the total Lien amount of $11,022,181.16, or approximately 42% of the total, meaning that 58% of the claimed fees and costs are not recoverable under the statute.”
Procedural preferences
In 111 West 57th Investment LLC v. 111 W57 Mezz Investor LLC, Judge Cohen rejected a sealing request that relied on confidentiality designations and the parties' stipulation without a specific showing of good cause.
“The fact that the parties have stipulated to sealing documents, or that they have designated the documents during discovery as ‘Confidential’ or ‘Highly Confidential,’ does not, by itself, require granting of the motion.”
In Vaidya v. Itria Ventures LLC, he held that the arbitrator should decide the petitioners' usury challenge to the underlying financing agreements because it challenged the contracts as a whole, not the arbitration clauses.
“[S]ince Petitioners challenge the legality of the underlying FRSAs on usury grounds, rather than the legality of the arbitration provisions themselves, the question of whether the FRSAs are void as disguised usurious loans is for the arbitrator to decide in the first instance.”
In Windsor Street Capital, L.P. v. Syren Capital Advisors, LLC, Judge Cohen held that adding defendants who had not signed the arbitration agreement did not defeat a signatory defendant's preserved right to compel arbitration.
“The mere fact that plaintiffs named additional defendants, who are not signatories to the arbitration agreement, does not foreclose [a defendant's] right to enforce arbitration.”
Cautions
In Landau v. DGital Media, LLC, he granted the defendants' request for sanctions tied to the fraud claim after finding that the plaintiff's contemporaneous communications showed a tactical choice to build a later litigation record.
“The contemporaneous record makes clear that Plaintiff made a tactical decision not to raise the question of Crossover's ownership or ‘fraud,’ and to instead create a litigation record for future use.”
In People v. National Rifle Association of America, Inc., his final judgment required the NRA to implement governance reforms that he found necessary, based on the trial evidence, to prevent future legal violations.
“[T]he NRA shall implement the following reforms as remedial measures the Court finds based on the evidence adduced at the trials in this action are reasonably necessary to prevent future violations of law.”
In Ben-Avraham v. Bomze, he found a likelihood of success on only part of the plaintiffs' fourth cause of action while granting their motion for an expanded preliminary injunction.
“Plaintiffs have established a likelihood of success on a portion, but not the entirety, of their Fourth Cause of Action.”
In Medley, Cohen found that the plaintiff had not shown a triable damages claim because its possible equity recovery from the debtor’s bankruptcy was speculative.
“the existence of any value it might have recouped from the bankruptcy is inherently speculative.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“ORDERED that Defendants' motion to compel arbitration and stay litigation is granted”
“Mr. Nicklaus' motion for summary judgment on dismissing claims against him for breach of the LLC Agreement and breach fiduciary duty is granted”
“ORDERED that Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment (Mot. Seq. 011) is DENIED”
“ORDERED that Defendants' Motion is denied without prejudice”
“ORDERED that the motions to dismiss are GRANTED to the extent that the claims for dissolution (first and second causes of action), breach of the NYPMIFA (sixteenth cause of action), and unjust enrichment (eighteenth cause of action) are dismissed; and the motions are otherwise DENIED.”
“ORDERED that Defendant's motion for summary judgment is DENIED”
“ORDERED that Defendant's motion for partial summary judgment dismissing those portions of BCI's First Cause of Action based on the alleged non-payment of proposed COs 58 and 68 and granting 225 LLCs First Counterclaim on the issue of liability, with the matter to be set down for an inquest to determine 225 LLC's damages, is GRANTED”
“ORDERED that Nissan's motion for Lien Law § 39-a damages is granted in part such that Nissan is awarded $144,767.00 for its bond premium payments, $999,054.07 for its reasonable attorneys' fees and expenses, and $2,316,623.97 for its share of the amount of willful exaggeration, totaling $3,460,445.04”
“ORDERED that Defendants' motion to dismiss Plaintiff's First Amended Verified Complaint is DENIED”
“ORDERED that Plaintiff's motion to amend is DENIED without prejudice”
“ORDERED that Defendants' motion to compel arbitration and to stay this action are GRANTED and this matter is stayed pending arbitration”
“ORDERED that Defendants’ motion for summary judgment is granted dismissing Plaintiffs’ fraud claim with prejudice, and is otherwise denied;”
“ORDERED that Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment is granted”
“Accordingly, Defendants' request for sanctions is granted, and Defendants shall recover their reasonable costs and attorneys' fees incurred in connection with defending the fraud claim in this action.”
“the order of the Supreme Court, New York County (Joel M. Cohen, J.), entered June 10, 2022, which granted the NYAG's motion to dismiss defendant NRA's First Amendment retaliation and selective enforcement counterclaims, should be affirmed, without costs”
“Judgment is entered in favor of the Plaintiff ... and against Defendant National Rifle Association of America ... as determined by the jury, and as such the NRA shall implement the following reforms as remedial measures the Court finds based on the evidence adduced at the trials in this action are reasonably necessary to prevent future violations of law”
Draft for Judge Cohen with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Cohen, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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