Charles Toutant

August 30, 2007 | Law.com

Marc D'Arienzo apparently has a propensity for not showing up in court for spurious reasons. It got him disciplined in 1999, and in the past year, it's hit him in the pocketbook. A Somerset County judge fined the New Jersey solo $1,000 on Friday for failing to appear at six scheduled court hearings in the case of Shaheem Young, who is charged with first-degree armed robbery. Superior Court Judge Robert Reed says D'Arienzo's poor attendance suggests he has compromised his client's interests.

By Charles Toutant

3 minute read

May 28, 2010 | New Jersey Law Journal

New Jersey law firms suspended or scaled back their summer associate programs for 2010, concerned about whether they'll have enough work to keep trainees busy and about the prospects for extending permanent offers in recessionary times.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

October 21, 2009 | New Jersey Law Journal

A judge's dismissal of a civil rights action due to the plaintiff's failure to list it as a potential claim on his Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition was too harsh an application of the judicial estoppel doctrine, a state appeals court says.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

April 30, 2007 | New Jersey Law Journal

Defense lawyers were handed a pyrrhic victory Monday in the case that will determine the scientific reliability of New Jersey's new drunken-driving tester. The state Supreme Court sent the case back to its special master with instructions to give defense lawyers an opportunity to arrange � at their own expense � independent, third-party testing of the software that runs the Alcotest 7110.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

May 31, 2002 | New Jersey Law Journal

Governments and owners of X-rated businesses are often at odds, but Shay Varone is the first owner to be indicted under a New Jersey law criminalizing operation of a sexually oriented business near residential areas.

By Charles Toutant

8 minute read

February 20, 2006 | New Jersey Law Journal

Accounting firm KPMG and law firm Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood have backed out of a $225 million settlement of a class-action suit against them, now that 20 percent of the class has opted out.

By Charles Toutant

3 minute read

June 23, 2003 | New Jersey Law Journal

Tax lawyers are testing their belief that Tax Court judges are end-running the Supreme Court's proscription against spot assessments of real estate. In three cases, lawyers are asking the Appellate Division to overturn Tax Court rulings that permit reassessments of individual properties, not in the context of a general municipal re-evaluation.

By Charles Toutant

7 minute read

May 10, 2007 | New Jersey Law Journal

Gov. Jon Corzine signed a law on Thursday that would divest many elected and appointed New Jersey officials of eligibility for pension benefits.

By Charles Toutant

3 minute read

June 28, 2004 | Law.com

A New Jersey Supreme Court panel is studying whether to cut back on the generous portions of peremptory challenges served up at state trials, and trial lawyers don't like it one bit. At present, New Jersey allows significantly more peremptories per party in both civil and criminal trials than the national average. The Trial Attorneys of New Jersey have already launched a vitriolic opposition to any attempt on behalf of the panel to contract voir dire.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

August 15, 2008 | Law.com

Calling an employee a "stupid fag" just once is grounds for a prima facie case of hostile workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, a New Jersey appeals court has ruled. The panel on Wednesday reinstated a gay man's suit against his former employer, Merrill Lynch. The judges invoked the federal "cat's paw" doctrine, allowing the plaintiff's wrongful discharge suit to go forward even though the bias claim was directed at a lower-level supervisor and not at the manager who fired him.

By Charles Toutant

6 minute read