Charles Toutant

June 10, 2002 | New Jersey Law Journal

Mel Narol, a nationally recognized expert in sports law who would have become president of the New Jersey State Bar Association next year, died last Monday. He was 51.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

April 26, 2004 | New Jersey Law Journal

If judicial temperament is defined as a calm, contemplative disposition, don't look for it in Roberto Rivera-Soto. The most recent state Supreme Court nominee is anything but laid back. He is an adventurer - a free-spirited motorcycle enthusiast and licensed private pilot who's hopped around three states in his quarter century of practice; a forceful and voluble litigator who's been just as willing to take risks in his professional career as in his personal life.

By Charles Toutant

10 minute read

December 31, 2003 | Law.com

A New Jersey jury has cleared Ford Motor Co. in a wrongful-death suit that alleged a design defect caused a door jam that prevented a state trooper from escaping his Crown Victoria patrol car as an assailant was firing at him. The attorney for the trooper's widow argued that the car's heavy front fender was pushed back into the door upon impact instead of crumpling, imprisoning the trooper inside the car.

By Charles Toutant

3 minute read

January 07, 2010 | New Jersey Law Journal

A prior breath-test refusal conviction has the same impact as a prior drunken-driving conviction at sentencing for a subsequent offense, a state appeals court held Thursday, reversing a 17-year-old precedent.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

December 18, 2008 | New Jersey Law Journal

A worker's compensation carrier that followed a state agency's faulty guidance on canceling a policy via telecommunications hook-up is still on the hook, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

April 19, 2007 | Law.com

A federal judge on Monday refused to allow an immediate appeal of his dismissal of RICO counts from a class action suit charging Wal-Mart Stores with illegal employment practices. The plaintiffs had asked U.S. District Judge Joseph Greenaway Jr. to enter a judgment so they could appeal the dismissal at once, but Greenaway found "just reason for delay" because the remaining claims turned on the same facts as the RICO claims. Greenaway had dismissed the RICO counts with prejudice last October.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

August 21, 2006 | New Jersey Law Journal

New Jersey largest law firms grew more diverse in gender and ethnicity this year, and so did law firms nationally, but an American Bar Association report says that firms are not doing enough to stanch a growing exodus of minority women lawyers.

By Charles Toutant

7 minute read

November 24, 2009 | New Jersey Law Journal

A state appeals court affirms a $32,632 sanction of a law firm that tried to schluff off part of the blame for botching a workers' compensation case by filing a third-party malpractice claim against the firm that replaced it.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

December 23, 2008 | Legaltech News

A worker's compensation carrier that followed a state agency's faulty guidance on canceling a policy via file transfer protocol is still liable for claims, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled, since the FTP protocol transmits data, not the certification required for cancellation.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

December 03, 2003 | Law.com

New Jersey Judge Alexander Lehrer got a tongue-lashing last month from the state's Appellate Division, which said he "paid lip service" to its order to reduce a $3 million verdict found to be excessive. Lehrer did reduce the verdict -- by exactly one cent -- apparently in protest of the court's order. In so doing, he "violated longstanding principles of our jurisprudence governing the relationship between trial and appellate courts," wrote the appeals court judges.

By Charles Toutant

3 minute read