Case: Litman v. Goldberg, Index No. 524343/2025 Court: Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Kings Pursuant to: CPLR Article 31 (§§ 3101, 3120) Relevant Period: June 15, 2020 through the date of production ("Relevant Period"), unless otherwise stated.
Statutory record-retention obligation. New York Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15(d)(1) (22 NYCRR Part 1200) requires every attorney and law firm practicing in New York to create, maintain, and preserve, for a period of seven (7) years, the bookkeeping records enumerated in Rule 1.15(d)(1)(i)–(ix) and Rule 1.15(d)(2). The Relevant Period falls entirely within that seven-year window. Defendants therefore had — and have — an affirmative, non-waivable professional duty to possess and produce every category of record demanded below.
Defendants admit the records were generated. Defendants have already demonstrated that the demanded records exist. The July 2025 Payment Allocation Report was generated by NGM on August 11, 2025 and then withheld from Plaintiff for eight (8) months before being produced in April 2026 (Finding #50). Defendant Goldberg has admitted in writing, on June 11, 2025, that "many of [the Trust Ledgers] are blank" and that "invoice numbers [are] not matching matter numbers" (Finding #53; Finding #62) — each of which is a direct admission that the Rule 1.15(d)(2) ledgers exist (or should exist) and are within Defendants' custody and control.
Adverse inference reservation. Any failure to produce a demanded category, or any claim that a category does not exist, will be treated as spoliation under CPLR 3126 and Plaintiff will seek an adverse-inference instruction at trial that the missing records, if produced, would have supported Plaintiff's claims and damages calculation. Defendants' professional obligation to maintain these records precludes any good-faith claim of non-existence.
Format of production. All responsive electronically stored information ("ESI") shall be produced in native file format with all original metadata preserved, including, without limitation: creation date, last-modified date, author, custodian, file path, and, for accounting-software exports, the full audit-trail/change-log export. Paper records shall be produced as searchable, unitized PDFs with Bates numbering. Accounting-software data (QuickBooks, Clio, PCLaw, Tabs3, or equivalent) shall be produced as a native backup file (e.g., .QBB, .CLIO export, .BAK) in addition to any report-style export.
Continuing obligation. These demands are continuing under CPLR 3101(h). Any responsive document created, received, or identified after the initial production shall be produced within 20 days of its creation or identification.
Definitions. "Trust Account" means the Bank of America account ending in 003926278751 (ABA 026009593) and any other attorney trust, escrow, IOLA, or special account maintained by NGM during the Relevant Period. "NGM" means Nath, Goldberg & Meyer, PLLC and all predecessor, successor, d/b/a, and affiliated entities (including Nath & Associates PLLC). "Client Matter" means any file opened by NGM for a client during the Relevant Period, whether identified by docket number, matter number, "attorney number 418," or any alternate/renumbered client code. "You" and "Your" mean Defendants Joshua B. Goldberg and NGM, jointly and severally.
Produce all monthly bank statements for the Trust Account ending in 003926278751 held at Bank of America (ABA 026009593), and for any other attorney trust, escrow, IOLA, or special account maintained by NGM, covering every month from June 2020 through the date of production, including every enclosure and the bank's transmittal cover sheet.
Produce all cancelled checks, check images, and bank-generated check-image reports (front and back) drawn on the Trust Account during the Relevant Period, including payee, amount, memo line, and endorsement.
Produce all wire transfer records for funds into or out of the Trust Account during the Relevant Period, including wire advices, SWIFT/Fedwire confirmations, originator and beneficiary information, correspondent-bank data, and the client/matter identification associated with each wire.
Produce all deposit slips, duplicate deposit slips, deposit tickets, and batch-deposit worksheets for all deposits into the Trust Account during the Relevant Period, showing for each item deposited the source, payor, client name, matter/docket number, and amount.
Produce the individual client ledger card (or equivalent subsidiary ledger) for each and every Client Matter on which NGM received, held, or disbursed funds during the Relevant Period, showing for each ledger: the client name, matter/docket number, responsible attorney, all receipts (date, source, amount), all disbursements (date, payee, amount, purpose), and the running balance. Specifically include every ledger for King Faisal University (KFU), King Saud University (KSU), Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), Kuwait University, Dasman Diabetes Institute, Sabah Al Ahmad Center, and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), and every ledger associated with "attorney number 418."
Produce all monthly, quarterly, or periodic three-way reconciliation reports prepared for the Trust Account during the Relevant Period, showing the reconciliation among (a) the trust bank balance, (b) the aggregate of the individual client ledger balances, and (c) the check register / chronological transaction journal, together with all supporting workpapers and reconciling-item lists.
Produce the complete check register, general journal, or chronological transaction journal for the Trust Account for the Relevant Period, including every entry in the order generated by NGM's accounting system, with no redactions other than for non-Litman-related client-privileged narrative.
Produce the complete trust account receipts journal for the Relevant Period, showing, for every receipt: date, source, payor, amount, form (check, wire, ACH, cash), client, matter/docket number, and the ledger account credited.
Produce the complete trust account disbursements journal for the Relevant Period, showing, for every disbursement: date, payee, amount, check/wire number, client, matter/docket number, purpose, authorizing attorney, and the ledger account debited.
Produce, for each month-end during the Relevant Period, the "Client Funds Held" report (also known as the "List of Who Owns Trust Money," the "Client Liability List," or the "Trust Liability Report"), showing the aggregate funds held in trust broken down by client and matter.
Produce all written disbursement authorizations, check-signing authorizations, wire-transfer authorization forms, and internal approvals for every disbursement from the Trust Account during the Relevant Period, identifying the attorney or staff member who authorized each disbursement.
Produce all records of every fee withdrawal or transfer from the Trust Account to NGM's operating account during the Relevant Period, including the date, amount, client, matter/docket number, invoice supporting the withdrawal, and the authorizing attorney.
Produce all records identifying, describing, investigating, or resolving any discrepancy, out-of-balance condition, shortfall, overdraft, unreconciled item, or variance in the Trust Account during the Relevant Period, including internal memoranda, emails, worksheets, and any dishonored-check notices received from the bank under 22 NYCRR Part 1300.
Produce all documentation of any negative balance on any individual client ledger during the Relevant Period, including the date the negative balance arose, the amount, the client, the matter, the cause, the corrective action, and the authorizing attorney. A negative client-ledger balance is per se evidence of commingling and must be documented.
Produce all records of subsidiary ledger balances, including month-end subsidiary-ledger trial balances, subsidiary-to-general-ledger reconciliations, and any report showing the tie-out between individual client ledger balances and the Trust Account control balance, for every month of the Relevant Period.
Produce all engagement letters, retainer agreements, fee agreements, scope-of-representation letters, and fee-allocation agreements executed with any client whose matter resulted in a deposit into or a disbursement from the Trust Account during the Relevant Period. This demand specifically includes all documents showing the methodology by which NGM allocated fees among responsible attorneys, including any documents describing the "20%" allocation formula.
Produce all records identifying the responsible attorney, originating attorney, or billing attorney for each Client Matter during the Relevant Period, including internal matter-opening forms, client-intake forms, conflict checks, matter-assignment records, and any record mapping "attorney number 418" (or any alternate or renumbered attorney identifier) to Plaintiff Richard C. Litman and to each matter on which he was designated responsible attorney.
Produce all internal accounting policies, procedures manuals, controller's handbooks, bookkeeper's handbooks, trust-accounting procedure documents, written separation-of-duties protocols, and any written guidance issued to NGM personnel concerning the operation of the Trust Account, the maintenance of client ledgers, the reconciliation process, and the allocation of fees to responsible attorneys, in effect at any time during the Relevant Period.
For the avoidance of doubt, each of Demands 1–18 requires, where applicable, production of the underlying native electronic file (including without limitation QuickBooks .QBB backups, Clio account exports, PCLaw .BAK files, Tabs3 backups, or equivalent accounting-software native backups), together with the full audit-trail / change-log export documenting every edit, deletion, re-classification, or re-numbering of entries. Production of a printed, PDF, or CSV report alone is not a sufficient response where a native file exists.
Plaintiff reserves the right to serve supplemental demands, to seek sanctions under CPLR 3126 for non-production, and to seek an adverse-inference instruction at trial with respect to any category of record that Defendants admit was required to be maintained under NY RPC 1.15(d) but that Defendants fail or refuse to produce.
Dated: ___, 2026
Counsel for Plaintiff Richard C. Litman