Charles Toutant

February 06, 2006 | New Jersey Law Journal

With one in five class members opting out of a vaunted $225 million settlement in a suit against KPMG and a law firm that advised it, the class counsel is trying to make the deal more attractive to the detractors' lawyers. Milberg, Weiss, Bershad & Shulman, which would get $30 million under the settlement, is offering fees to lawyers who convince their clients to drop individual claims and accept the settlement terms.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

January 02, 2003 | Law.com

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated a suit against two state park rangers, saying the plaintiffs had articulated "a paradigmatic case of racial profiling." The panel ruled that a district court improvidently granted summary judgment by failing to view the facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, four Mexican immigrants arrested at a New Jersey state park for swimming after closing.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

December 30, 2002 | New Jersey Law Journal

New Jersey's reporter shield law, one of the nation's most powerful, does not allow media defendants to keep all unpublished material out of discovery in invasion of privacy suits, a judge in Monmouth County has ruled. Superior Court Judge Louis Locascio's Dec. 19 decision, in a case against The New York Times is the first since the 1977 revision of the reporter's privilege to deny a news organization's absolute protection against disclosure in a civil case.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

November 01, 2006 | Law.com

One of New Jersey's oldest and largest firms, Pitney Hardin, is merging with Connecticut's biggest, Day, Berry & Howard, to create a 395-lawyer power with branches ranging from Boston to Washington, D.C. The new firm, to be known as Day Pitney, will come into being at year end. The amalgamation reflects both firms' need to compete in a market that is becoming increasingly regional, in which practices restricted to individual states can no longer thrive.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

August 12, 2002 | New Jersey Law Journal

The damages won by his clients were a modest ,594, but the case was much more rewarding for William Sanders. As the attorney for the prevailing plaintiffs in a legal malpractice suit, he and his firm won a hearty ,393 in fees. The source of the bounty is the Saffer v. Willoughby fee-shifting doctrine, and Sanders says the award in his case is one of the largest since the state Supreme Court created the remedy.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

August 01, 2005 | New Jersey Law Journal

The best testimonial about a law firm might come from a lawyer who's left. That's the idea behind firms' growing emphasis on alumni networking - the treatment of former employees' good will as an asset to be managed.

By Charles Toutant

6 minute read

October 11, 2010 | Daily Business Review

Lawyers jockeying over where to consolidate federal litigation against hip-replacement device maker DePuy Orthopaedics seem to agree on one thing: U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton in Newark, New Jersey, shouldn't handle it.

By Charles Toutant

3 minute read

September 09, 2002 | New Jersey Law Journal

This fall's incoming class at Seton Hall University School of Law is 31 percent larger than usual, the result of the unpredictable art of estimating how many students will enroll. Due to an increase in accepted admission offers, the law school had 502 first-year students when classes started -- 120 more than usual. Seton Hall's figures mirror the trends at schools nationwide.

By Charles Toutant

3 minute read

February 14, 2005 | New Jersey Law Journal

More vehicles on New Jersey roads may soon be sporting a new accessory: a mechanical sobriety test for people convicted of drunken driving. The ignition interlock, as it's called, has been an optional component of DWI sentencing since 2001, but bills pending in both houses of the Legislature would make installation mandatory in drunken driving sentences, even for first offenders.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

September 29, 2010 | New Jersey Law Journal

Adoptive parents cannot ignore blood bonds between siblings and may be ordered to permit visitation upon proof it would be in the adopted child's best interests, a unanimous state Supreme Court rules.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read