Charles Toutant

June 17, 2010 | The Legal Intelligencer

The possibility that a child may suffer serious psychological or emotional harm from severing bonds with foster parents is not alone sufficient grounds for termination of parental rights, a New Jersey appeals court says.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

August 26, 2010 | Law.com

The special master appointed to handle discovery in a mammoth fraud and bribery suit against Prudential Life Insurance has agreed to reduce his fees, even as the plaintiffs lawyers are trying to dispense with him altogether. William Hunt said in a letter to the parties that he would cut his hourly rate from $450 to $350. Plaintiffs lawyer Angela Roper, who had sounded alarms over the $77,265 bill Hunt submitted for his first three weeks on the job, said she will continue to appeal Hunt's appointment in the case.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

September 26, 2006 | Law.com

With branch offices in Princeton and New York, Reed Smith really doesn't need one in Newark, N.J., so the firm is shutting it down next year. Steven Picco, the New Jersey partner in charge, says the closure is in sync with the 1,100-lawyer Pittsburgh-based firm's plan to eliminate redundant offices as it expands internationally. It has 14 U.S. offices and four in Europe, and on Jan. 1, its London office will merge with 400-lawyer Richards Butler, with branches in Asia, the Middle East and South America.

By Charles Toutant

3 minute read

April 27, 2007 | The Legal Intelligencer

Popular belief, at least in medical communities, holds that juries in medical malpractice cases tend to side with plaintiffs, even where the case against a doctor is a weak one.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

October 09, 2006 | New Jersey Law Journal

The owner of three leased racehorses stands to lose them by dint of a judge's novel application of a 19th century law that places a lien on livestock when the stablekeeper's bill is unpaid. The ruling, which may be the first in New Jersey to hold a horse owner liable for a lessee's debts to third parties based on a stablekeeper's lien, could have broad coattails in the equine world, where leasing of horses is commonplace.

By Charles Toutant

6 minute read

December 07, 2010 | New Jersey Law Journal

Physical injury from handcuffing is not a prerequisite to a finding of used of excessive force by police, a federal judge in Camden rules.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

February 22, 2002 | The Legal Intelligencer

As a consequence of the differing conclusions and opinions of these numerous experts, no reasonable jury could conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, that this occurrence was an act of criminal homicide by manual strangulation, as opposed to a tragic motor vehicle accident fatality, acting County Prosecutor J. David Meyer said Thursday.

By Charles Toutant

3 minute read

April 18, 2007 | New Jersey Law Journal

Ford Motor Co. may have been spared a monster punitive damages verdict in an SUV rollover case because its lawyer was allowed to tell jurors about the carmaker's dire financial straits and mass layoffs

By Charles Toutant

3 minute read

May 20, 2002 | New Jersey Law Journal

Richard Badolato plans to spend his year as State Bar Association president filling the public`s and the business community`s ears with all the good that lawyers do. To accomplish that, he admits, he must fight lawyers` worst enemies: themselves.

By Charles Toutant

8 minute read

March 21, 2011 | New Jersey Law Journal

An illegal immigrant's claim for lost wages in a personal injury suit is not barred by a federal law prohibiting employment of undocumented workers, a federal judge in Trenton has ruled.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read