Michael Booth

June 20, 2011 | New Jersey Law Journal

The Senate Judiciary Committee gives its approval to the appointment of Joseph Krakora as head of the Public Defender's Office, succeeding Yvonne Smith Segars.

By Michael Booth

4 minute read

December 04, 2006 | New Jersey Law Journal

When a corporation hires outside counsel, that doesn't mean the lawyer should be entitled to indemnification if things goes awry and legal troubles ensue. Or does it? An appeals court says yes: that the outside counsel becomes a corporate agent if he performs what are in essence outsourced company functions. It's a unsettled point of law in New Jersey, and it will be decided by the state Supreme Court.

By Michael Booth

3 minute read

January 31, 2005 | New Jersey Law Journal

Spurred by a disbarred lawyer's theft of millions of dollars from multiple clients, the Senate Judiciary Committee last Monday endorsed a bill limiting who may serve as executors or administrators.

By Michael Booth

3 minute read

October 12, 2007 | New Jersey Law Journal

An attorney and his client, who last May escaped conviction on charges they unduly pressured an elderly widow to name them as executor and beneficiary of her multimillion dollar estate, now are trying to avoid punitive damages.

By Michael Booth

6 minute read

September 13, 2004 | New Jersey Law Journal

Federal courts generally shrink away from state constitutional questions, but there are some things a state constitution just doesn't answer. New Jersey's, for one, doesn't say what constitutes a "vacancy" in the governor's office, such as would cause the mechanism for special election to kick in. Is a governor's public statement of intention to resign sufficient, or is there required some formal, officious act? Lawyers debated that question in a Trenton federal courtroom last Wednesday, as two Green Party

By Michael Booth

5 minute read

June 20, 2005 | New Jersey Law Journal

A judge who was denied tenure says the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee orchestrated her removal by causing her to receive low marks in the Law Journal's judicial survey.

By Michael Booth

7 minute read

February 02, 2000 | Law.com

New Jersey's Supreme Court ruled that people who sell real estate for brokers and agencies are employees, not independent contractors, and are eligible for workers' compensation benefits if injured on the job. The ruling was a victory for the insurance industry, which prefers the small-scale payouts of workers' compensation and the limits it puts on damages.

By Michael Booth

4 minute read

July 26, 2004 | New Jersey Law Journal

At oral arguments last Thursday, the state Supreme Court signaled it would likely approve Gov. James McGreevey's plan to balance the state's $28 billion budget by selling up to $2.7 billion in bonds not approved by voters. But it was clear from the dialogue that any blessing bestowal would be on a one-time-only basis, and that such bond sales - alleged to be of dubious constitutional validity - would likely be banned in the future.

By Michael Booth

6 minute read

August 06, 2008 | The Legal Intelligencer

Workers taunted about their religion or ancestry are entitled to the same legal protection as the victims of sexual, racial and ethnic harassment, the New Jersey Supreme Court said in the case of a police officer whose colleagues called him a "dirty Jew."

By Michael Booth

6 minute read

September 20, 2004 | New Jersey Law Journal

If the first session of the Supreme Court's fall term is an indication, New Jersey's newest justice, Roberto Rivera-Soto, will be an exacting, strict constructionist of legislation and precedent, one who looks askance at visceral appeals for social justice.

By Michael Booth

11 minute read