Charles Toutant

June 19, 2006 | New Jersey Law Journal

The Office of Attorney Ethics managed to turn the tide on its disciplinary case backlog in 2005, but it had some help: The number of complaints about errant lawyers is going down.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

September 17, 2009 | New Jersey Law Journal

A judge hit with ethics charges over his in-court reference to a group linked to Adolf Hitler says the remark was not anti-Semitic and was meant to diffuse animosity between opposing counsel.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

April 11, 2005 | New Jersey Law Journal

A growing number of litigators are using open-records requests to augment discovery to obtain documents involving government entities without having to establish relevance.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

September 05, 2008 | New Jersey Law Journal

Greenberg Traurig's New Jersey office picked up five corporate and technology lawyers last Tuesday from the Summit office of Thacher, Proffitt & Wood, a New York-based firm undergoing retrenchment.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

December 16, 2002 | New Jersey Law Journal

In a decision tax lawyers say will have widespread impact, a state Tax Court judge has clamped down on a favorite method of securing tax abatements under laws enacted to spur building in growth-hungry urban areas like Jersey City. In the case of Secaucus v. Jersey City, the plaintiff claimed that a building owner avoided payment of income deemed excess profit by forming multiple corporations under common ownership to shield revenues.

By Charles Toutant

6 minute read

June 28, 2004 | New Jersey Law Journal

With four lawyers but more than 100 nonlawyer collections employees, JBC Legal Group operates on the premise that a letter from a lawyer hinting at legal action is a strong motivator to debtors. That assumption is no doubt correct, but it's leading to legal trouble for JBC and its owner.

By Charles Toutant

7 minute read

September 28, 2010 | Law.com

Lawyers in a New Jersey burglary case seem to have stumbled upon a new terrain for photographic evidence: Google Earth. A New Jersey appeals court on Monday found no error in allowing prosecutors to use satellite photos from the global mapping service to help show the perpetrator's proximity to the crime scenes -- specifically, by pinpointing the location of cellular towers near his home and the burgled residence.

By Charles Toutant

5 minute read

January 25, 2002 | New Jersey Law Journal

A Camden County judge on Friday denied the state attorney general's request for relief from an order allowing defense attorneys to examine the Alcotest 7110, the new drunken-driving breath-test device slated to replace Breathalyzers. Defense lawyers can't buy an Alcotest on the open market because the manufacturer, Drager Safety of Durango, Colo., only sells the machine to government agencies and not private citizens.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

August 24, 2006 | Law.com

The revised bankruptcy code's provision for mandatory credit-counseling classes prior to a Chapter 7 petition does not apply in the case of involuntary proceedings, a bankruptcy judge has ruled. Calling the issue one of first impression, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Novalyn Winfield in Newark, N.J., has denied a motion to dismiss a petition by three creditors of former Livingston, N.J., lawyer Edward Fagan -- one of them a former client -- who hold more than $5 million in judgments.

By Charles Toutant

4 minute read

November 17, 2004 | The Legal Intelligencer

There's no getting around the facts: Law is a business, law firms are companies and companies need corporate counsel.

By Charles Toutant

6 minute read