Charles Toutant

June 15, 2006 | The Legal Intelligencer

A Morristown, N.J., firm is hopping the pond in hopes of improving its foothold in London's insurance and reinsurance industries.

By Charles Toutant ALM

4 minute read

August 03, 2007 | National Law Journal

New Jersey's organized Bar is calling on law firms to relent from mandatory retirement rules for partners, in favor of more flexible policies that recognize the value of older lawyers. The New Jersey Bar's trustees have endorsed a position paper issued by the New York State Bar Association, which states that forced retirement at a fixed age is "inconsistent with accepted employment practices, against public policy and not in the best interest of either law firms or their clients."

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

July 12, 2004 | New Jersey Law Journal

Prompted by a federal grant program begun in 2000, 97 jurisdictions in 32 states have started special courts that serve as cost-effective alternatives to incarceration and a way to cut recidivism. The programs divert mentally ill defendants into treatment and intensive supervision, much like drug courts do with first-time controlled-substance violators.

By By Charles Toutant

8 minute read

December 02, 2003 | Law.com

Ethnicity among New Jersey judges resembles the state population less closely than do the judiciaries of nearby states, statistics show. People of African-American, Hispanic and Asian ethnicity comprise 35.1 percent of New Jersey's population but only 12 percent of its judiciary. The diversity ratios of society to the bench gained prominence this summer, when the ABA adopted recommendations aimed at increasing diversity on the bench.

By Charles Toutant

6 minute read

August 16, 2004 | New Jersey Law Journal

Lawyers working for corporate clients can no longer expect to get paid by simply stuffing their bill in an envelope and gluing on a stamp. More and more legal departments are only paying bills submitted by computer.

By Charles Toutant

7 minute read

August 04, 2004 | The Legal Intelligencer

With little success so far in stopping municipal condemnations of blighted property, opponents of New Jersey urban renewal plans are trying out a new strategy - calling the condemnations violations of constitutional and civil rights.

By Charles Toutant

7 minute read

June 15, 2010 | New Jersey Law Journal

A bill allowing adoptees to access their original birth certificates is moving toward a final vote, despite concerns that the measure shows to little respect for birth parents' privacy.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

October 24, 2003 | Law.com

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. has agreed to pay up to $236 million to settle a class action suit over defective hoses in radiant home-heating systems. The settlement covers purchasers in 44 states and Canada, who raised claims of failure to warn, design defects and negligence. They claimed Goodyear knew the Entran II rubber hoses it produced and sold from 1989 to 1994 tended to crack and break.

By Charles Toutant

3 minute read

January 06, 2003 | New Jersey Law Journal

The first cases to use New Jersey's new drunken-driving test will face a watershed this year, as soon as a Camden County judge decides what's required to give the device a proper shaking out. Cases were moved to the Law Division for a hearing to determine whether the device meets the standard of scientific acceptance and reliability set out in Frye v. U.S. If it does, that would clear the way for the Alcotest to be used in police departments statewide.

By Charles Toutant

7 minute read

August 06, 2010 | New Jersey Law Journal

A personal injury plaintiff who sued a senior-citizens' facility is entitled to discovery on its finances in her effort to defeat its charitable-immunity defense, the Appellate Division rules.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read