Closely Watched Claims

Back in 2004, a Manhattan attorney named Ravi Batra thought that a November 2003 “Law and Order” episode, called “Floater,” that featured a character named “Ravi Patel” hewed a little too closely to “ripped from the headlines” for his taste. So he filed a defamation suit under a doctrine called “libel in fiction.” In a ruling handed down today, the judge in the case is allowing the case to move forward, denying “Law and Order” producer Dick Wolf legal team’s motion to dismiss.