Charles Toutant

June 09, 2008 | New Jersey Law Journal

The more generous recovery limits of a 2004 revamp of New Jersey workers? compensation death benefits do not apply to workers who died before its enactment, the state Supreme Court rules.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

July 01, 2008 | Law.com

In his first general assignment order, New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner has dramatically increased the number of women and minorities in executive judgeships. The 2008-09 assignment order shows that 35 percent of the trial court presiding judges are women and 13 percent are minorities. That compares with 26 percent women and 11 percent minorities in 2007 and 30 percent women and 10 percent minorities in 2005, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

March 08, 2006 | National Law Journal

Fresh from its victory in a Rhode Island suit against lead paint makers, powerhouse plaintiffs firm Motley Rice is prepping for a similar battle in New Jersey's Supreme Court. The law firm last month handed the paint industry its first defeat in scores of lead contamination suits by showing that peeling paint is a public nuisance. The New Jersey case has the rapt attention of defense attorneys, who fear that local adoption of the doctrine would ease the way for untold numbers of suits.

By Charles Toutant

6 minute read

February 20, 2008 | New Jersey Law Journal

New Jersey's year-old Civil Union Act has failed so far to convey to registered same-sex couples the rights and privileges of marriage, a state commission reports.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

July 21, 2009 | New Jersey Law Journal

Recognizing that teenagers who e-mail nude or sexually suggestive photos of themselves to friends aren't really child pornographers, New Jersey legislators are proposing alternatives to criminal prosecution that may be more effective in stanching the recent practice.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

July 09, 2007 | New Jersey Law Journal

Judge Gerald Escala, on the eve of retiring from the bench, shouldn't have ruled in a case involving the law firm he was about to join, but doing so was not reversible error, a New Jersey appeals court says.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

November 24, 2003 | New Jersey Law Journal

Superior Court Judge Alexander Lehrer got a tongue-lashing last Thursday from the 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 appeals court's 2001 order.

By Charles Toutant

3 minute read

September 12, 2005 | Legaltech News

Video-enhanced summation, which allows lawyers to virtually recreate a trial on videotape in the order and context they wish, is a growing trend. Its ability to both sway juries, and, possibly, create controversy, is staggering. "It has the potential of really skewing the way jurors look at the evidence," says jury consultant Beth Bochnak. "You can take a quote out of context and make it sound any way you want."

By Charles Toutant

7 minute read

July 20, 2007 | Law.com

The New Jersey Supreme Court has rejected a proposed plan to open fee disputes between lawyers and their clients to public scrutiny. The court gave no reason, but there had been vocal opposition to the proposal from the State Bar Association and county bars. The opponents argued that arbitration is by nature a private forum, designed to allow parties to resolve their differences out of the glare of publicity. The court also declined to adopt proposed amendments to the rules on multijurisdictional practice.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

August 24, 2010 | New Jersey Law Journal

As state aid and other sources of operating funds dry up, regional legal services offices — which handle the bulk of noncriminal counseling for New Jersey's poor — are in retrenchment, and several are handing out scores of pink slips.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read