Charles Toutant

September 16, 2002 | New Jersey Law Journal

Robert Marshall, New Jersey's most death-eligible convict, isn't dead yet, and neither is the chance that his execution will be postponed indefinitely. Last week, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave Marshall a new evidentiary hearing on his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel during the sentencing phase of his murder trial.

By Charles Toutant

6 minute read

November 29, 2004 | New Jersey Law Journal

With three vacancies to fill on New Jersey's federal bench, Senators Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg are launching a legal talent search.

By Charles Toutant

2 minute read

August 19, 2008 | Law.com

Calling an employee a "stupid fag" just once is ground for a prima facie case of hostile-workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, a New Jersey appeals court has ruled. The Appellate Division on Aug. 13 reinstated a gay man's suit against Merrill Lynch, his former employer, likening it to a 1998 state Supreme Court precedent, Taylor v. Metzger, that allowed a hostile-workplace claim to be based on a single racial slur.

By Charles Toutant

6 minute read

August 04, 2003 | New Jersey Law Journal

Case backlogs in state courts have been brought down to their lowest levels since 1995, the Administrative Office of the Courts announced last week.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

September 25, 2008 | New Jersey Law Journal

A U.S. judge has certified a class action by consumers against a Woodbury collection lawyer who dunned them, finding that rules governing a debt collector's first notice also apply to the first notice from subsequent collectors.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

March 03, 2003 | New Jersey Law Journal

A year after grievances to her superiors prompted a probe of gender bias in Essex County judicial assignments, a woman judge is convinced the results were massaged or smoothed over. So Judge Francine Schott is going to court, this time as a litigant.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

April 09, 2009 | New Jersey Law Journal

A challenge to New Jersey's Truth in Music Act by progeny of 1950s-vintage crooner groups The Drifters, The Platters and The Coasters has been dismissed, now that the state has backed off its previously broad view of the law's reach.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

August 23, 2010 | New Jersey Law Journal

The special master appointed to handle discovery in a mammoth fraud and bribery suit against Prudential Life Insurance Co. has agreed to reduce his fees, even as the plaintiffs' lawyers are trying to dispense with him altogether.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

May 15, 2006 | New Jersey Law Journal

With an eye on expansion, Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione is leaving its plush offices at Newark's Legal Center for new digs across the street at a building that will bear its name.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

March 03, 2003 | New Jersey Law Journal

For New Jersey judges, even a simple invitation to a banquet demands careful weighing of potential consequences. The state's Code of Judicial Conduct requires judges to abstain from partisan politics and take great care in social interactions that might create an appearance of impropriety. New Jersey's hermetically sealed bubble may be burst if a Feb. 20 federal court ruling striking down New York's judicial gag rule on First Amendment grounds becomes the law of the land.

By Charles Toutant

7 minute read