Charles Toutant

September 13, 2010 | New Jersey Law Journal

Bergen County's sheriff agrees to remove a link on his department's website to his personal Twitter page that publicized an election fund-raiser, after his campaign opponent alleges in court that use of the social networking site violated state election law.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

July 12, 2010 | New Jersey Law Journal

Just as being slipped a spiked drink at a party is no defense to driving while intoxicated, neither is exposure to mind-impairing chemicals, a state appeals court rules.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

April 06, 2007 | New Jersey Law Journal

The State Bar Association is hollering mad at a policy, enforced by state court regulators, requiring third-time drunken-driving offenders to be hauled off to jail the minute they're convicted.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

November 12, 2002 | Law.com

Size matters, but it's not always an advantage, as 400-lawyer Pepper Hamilton learned the hard way. The Philadelphia main office subpoenaed as a witness a longtime client of its Detroit branch, only to see a firm lawyer from Detroit show up with a motion to quash. "Serving a subpoena on an existing firm client is, to say the least, a professional embarrassment to be avoided at all costs," wrote U.S. District Judge Stephen Orlofsky in New Jersey.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

August 11, 2004 | Law.com

Public school students harassed by classmates based on bias can sue for "hostile environment" discrimination, the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights has ruled in a precedent-setting case. The director found that a student who endured years of anti-gay name-calling and physical abuse has a claim under the state's Law Against Discrimination. However, an attorney for the school district faulted the decision for equating a middle school to a workplace.

By Charles Toutant

7 minute read

April 05, 2011 | New Jersey Law Journal

A precedential ruling by the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opens the door to federal class actions under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act against senders of 'junk fax' messages.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

November 09, 2010 | Law.com

Trenton's chief municipal judge, Renee Lamarre Sumners, resigns in the wake of public disclosure that she had bounced checks to judicial authorities, was sued by creditors and was the subject of an arrest warrant.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

March 02, 2011 | New Jersey Law Journal

A man who spent 13 years in jail on an armed-robbery conviction that he alleges was based on perjured, out-of-court statements by accomplices convinced a U.S. appeals court to grant a writ of habeas corpus on Sixth Amendment grounds.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

June 05, 2008 | New Jersey Law Journal

Parties who win suits against the federal government may recover paralegal fees at market rates under the Equal Access to Justice Act, the U.S. Supreme Court rules.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

August 31, 2007 | Law.com

Schering-Plough Corp. faces a spate of federal court litigation over promotion of its drugs for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Eight putative class action suits are pending with U.S. District Judge Stanley Chesler in Newark, N.J., consolidated by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Schering's lawyer, Joan McPhee of Ropes & Gray, said the company will defend what it considers a free-speech right to discuss off-label uses with doctors.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read