As noted in "One Reason Why NY Trial Court Verdicts Are So Hard to Overturn," New York's appellate courts are required to accord a great amount of deference to the judgment of a trial court, especially if the judgment was based in large part upon its assessment of the parties' credibility; in other words, where the appellate court is confronted with a purely legal - as opposed to a factual - issue, the appellate court has a great deal more leeway to overturn an adverse decision, because it is on the same exact footing as the trial court in evaluating the case.