Charles Toutant

November 02, 2006 | The Legal Intelligencer

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.

By Charles Toutant ALM

4 minute read

September 23, 2002 | New Jersey Law Journal

Former Gloucester County Prosecutor Andrew Yurick is suing the county and the state for removing him from office when his five-year term expired but before his replacement came on board. Yurick claims he had a statutory right to stay on the job in the interim. He also raises whistleblower and retaliation counts against the county freeholders, who he says subjected him to "administrative harassment."

By Charles Toutant

3 minute read

November 04, 2009 | Law.com

Pro se litigants are not entitled to greater rights than those with lawyers, a New Jersey appeals court said this week in affirming dismissal of a legal malpractice case under the state's entire controversy doctrine. The judges found that the claims raised in the instant case by the plaintiff -- who sued his lawyer three times, two of them pro se in a small claims action and probate action -- "were well within the penumbra of the factual matrix that was litigated to a conclusion" in a probate case in 2006.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

February 12, 2007 | New Jersey Law Journal

Most drunken driving cases are based on breath tests, but in cases that rely on blood samples; prosecutors' jobs just got a little harder. The defendant has the right to cross-examine the medical professionals who drew the blood, an appeals court says, and getting that person into court may be problematic.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

June 19, 2006 | New Jersey Law Journal

Delaware suffered a setback last Tuesday in its border war with New Jersey over the siting of a liquefied natural gas terminal on the Delaware River. Delaware wants the case out of the U.S. Supreme Court because, it claims, this is not a true dispute between states that would invoke the Court's original jurisdiction. Rather, the other party in interest is BP, the energy company it claims is bankrolling the litigation.

By Charles Toutant

3 minute read

February 23, 2007 | New Jersey Law Journal

A conflict between New Jersey and Delaware over regulating their shared boundary may come down to modern construction of a term draftsmen coined a century ago. The phrase, "riparian jurisdiction," used in a 1905 compact that settled an intrastate fishing-rights dispute, is being invoked by Delaware to limit construction of industrial facilities across the river in New Jersey.

By Charles Toutant

7 minute read

June 14, 2005 | The Legal Intelligencer

Medical malpractice filings have declined steadily in New Jersey since the adoption of a tort reform measure designed to weed out frivolous suits.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

October 05, 2009 | New Jersey Law Journal

Doctors often are in a position to spot how legal issues affect their patients' health, and Ocean-Monmouth Legal Services is launching a program to address those problems in a medical setting.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

April 18, 2011 | New Jersey Law Journal

An employer is not responsible when a chronically intoxicated employee is involved in a fatal car crash on his own time, a state appeals court rules.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

June 09, 2004 | Law.com

Clerkships at New Jersey's largest firms are in a four-year decline. Some firms have trimmed their summer programs, while others have axed them entirely. Why? Experts say the state's economy has some bearing, but the main reason for slimmer programs is that they no longer serve as a farm system for new talent. Some observers see a trend as firms apply money formerly spent on summer programs to lateral hiring instead.

By Charles Toutant

6 minute read