Lawyer wins bid to depose ‘Law & Order’ producers in libel suit

Attorney Ravi Batra can question “Law & Order” producer Dick Wolf in connection with a $15 million libel action the lawyer filed in 2004 against 35 defendants, including Wolf and NBC Universal, a New York judge has ruled.

The New York Law Journal

September 1, 2010

By Noeleen G. Walder

The suit centers around a “Law & Order” episode entitled “Floater,” in which a bald Indian-American matrimonial attorney called “Ravi Patel” is depicted bribing a Supreme Court justice in Brooklyn. Batra, who was born in India, claimed the episode was based on a widely publicized corruption scandal involving Justice Gerald Garson and matrimonial lawyer Paul Siminovsky.

Last week, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings held that “only the most extreme circumstances” such as “systematic harassment by plaintiff” would shield Wolf, Peter Jankowski, the president of Wolf Films, and two “Law & Order” producers from being deposed by Batra.

“Defendants have not indicated any remotely comparable circumstances,” Billings wrote in Batra v. Wolf, 116059/04. The judge limited the depositions to three hours.

In a statement NBC said, “We are disappointed that the Court has ordered the depositions of four individuals who have sworn that they had never heard of Batra and had no involvement in developing the fictional “Law and Order” character at issue. We remain confident that the evidence will continue to show, as it has already, that the fictional character was not in any way based on plaintiff and that NBC did not defame him.”

Batra appeared pro se. Elizabeth McNamara of Davis Wright Tremaine is representing the defendants.

Copyright 2010 The New York Journal

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