NJLJ.com http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/index.jsp Updated daily en-us 09 Feb 2012 10:35:34 -0500 Copyright 2009. Incisive Media US Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. http://www.law.com/service/terms_conditions.shtml NJLJ.com http://www.law.com/img/nj/alert/nj_rss.gif http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/index.jsp Supreme Court Panel Recommends Allowing 'Virtual' Bona Fide Offices Lawyers may soon be allowed to practice in New Jersey using "virtual" law offices instead of having to keep up bricks-and-mortar locations. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541768879&rss=nj 1202541768879 Suit Says Widener Law Job Statistics Equate Bar Practice With Bartending A suit against Widener University School of Law has become the first locally venued battle in a campaign of litigation over alleged deliberate fudging of law graduate employment statistics — failing to distinguish between legal positions and other jobs. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541753777&rss=nj 1202541753777 Malpractice Carrier Seeks Rescission For Nondisclosure of Charges, Suits Michael Kwasnik, a former Cherry Hill and Philadelphia lawyer now in jail and charged with thefts of more than $1 million in client funds, is facing a fraud suit by his malpractice carrier. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541772398&rss=nj 1202541772398 New Trial Denied Despite Discovery of Deal With Prosecution Witness Five times a Garfield man has sought to have his 18-year-old murder conviction overturned and for a fifth time he failed, even though he had just discovered that a prosecution witness might have been given immunity in exchange for testifying. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541773619&rss=nj 1202541773619 Assembly Committee Advances Bill On Income-Driven Alimony Reductions For more than 30 years, N.J. family court judges have been authorized by common law to adjust alimony and child support obligations due to changed employment circumstances. Now legislation is afoot to make it official. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541643474&rss=nj 1202541643474 Appeals Court Rails Against Practice of Deferring Factfinding-Based Decisions A judge's entering a final divorce judgment and months later filing a written opinion with materially different terms has prompted an appeals court to publish a screed against deferred decisions. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541648223&rss=nj 1202541648223 Class Certification Denied in Suit Over Ford Vans With Potential for Rollover A federal judge in Newark has denied class certification for claims that a Ford Motor Co. van model are too prone to rolling over to carry 15 passengers as advertised. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541693017&rss=nj 1202541693017 Ex-Prosecutor Ties Firing to Protest Over Dropped Misconduct Charges A former assistant Hunterdon County prosecutor claims in a whistleblower suit that he was fired for objecting to what he calls a politically motivated decision to drop misconduct charges against three county officials. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541693213&rss=nj 1202541693213 Court Needs Data To Decide Fate of Restrictive Rule on Auto Searches The state Supreme Court says it needs more information to decide whether it should overturn its 2-year-old ruling that requires higher thresholds of probable cause and exigent circumstances to justify warrantless searches of vehicles after traffic stops. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541576581&rss=nj 1202541576581 Morgan Melhuish Lawyer Apologizes For Slurs at Animal Rights Attorney A bear-hunting lawyer whose online taunts at an animal-protection attorney sparked a demonstration outside his law firm has issued an apology of sorts. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541515668&rss=nj 1202541515668 Rutgers Law Schools Weigh Merger in Face of Christie's Reorganization Plan Amid the uproar over Gov. Chris Christie's proposed merger of Rutgers Law School-Camden with Rowan University, another plan is on the table that would blend the law schools in Camden and Newark into one entity. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541576664&rss=nj 1202541576664 Recusal-Rife High Court Hears Appeal Of Dismissed J&J Arterial Stent Suits Heart patients and their relatives seeking reinstatement of claims against Johnson & Johnson over allegedly defective arterial stents faced an odd tribunal: a state Supreme Court with almost no Supreme Court justices. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541344507&rss=nj 1202541344507 A Month Into Senior Status, Brown Leaves Federal Judgeship for JAMS After taking senior status and officially stepping down as chief judge a month ago, veteran federal jurist Garrett Brown Jr. announces his full retirement. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541197807&rss=nj 1202541197807 Lawyer Held To Flub Advice on Effect of Domestic Violence Plea on Gun Permit Failure to advise a criminal defendant that pleading guilty to domestic violence would cost him his right to have a gun constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel, a state appeals court says. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541029540&rss=nj 1202541029540 Forcing Owners To Allow Town Access For Inspections Held Unconstitutional An ordinance requiring property owners to give municipal inspectors access on pain of prosecution violates the Fourth Amendment ban on warrantless searches, a state appeals court says. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541036762&rss=nj 1202541036762 Same-Sex Marriage Bill Approved by Assembly Panel But Veto Looms Ahead After seven hours of occasionally heated testimony, the Assembly Judiciary Committee recommends passage of legislation legalizing same-sex marriage. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541233847&rss=nj 1202541233847 New Attorney General Fills Top Post, Targets Prescription Drug Abuse Less than three weeks after becoming attorney general, Jeffrey Chiesa has brought on board a new Division of Law director, and has reorganized and bulked up programs that combat prescription drug abuse. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202540898874&rss=nj 1202540898874 Lawyer Sues Litigation Adversaries for Defamation, and Wins A lawyer who claimed he was the target of a smear campaign by a client's adversaries has knocked out the other side's defenses in his defamation suit. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202540574494&rss=nj 1202540574494 Profiling Accuser Gets a New Shot in Try for Officer's Personnel Records A man convicted of drug charges wins a hearing on his request for the arresting officer's personnel records so he could pursue a racial-profiling claim. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541036806&rss=nj 1202541036806 Case Tests Limits of Rule Against Representing Adverse Parties in Related Case The state Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on whether a law firm's brief representation of a party in litigation over construction of a section of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System disqualifies it from representing its current client. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202540899319&rss=nj 1202540899319 Appellate Watch: 'God Told Me To Kill' Defense Is Tested at State High Court The state Supreme Court is reviewing the first reversal of a New Jersey homicide conviction for failure to give the jury a special "deific command" instruction regarding the insanity defense. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202541078991&rss=nj 1202541078991 Cemetery Sued for Organ Harvesting Fights Denial of Insurance Coverage A cemetery and crematorium are making a last-ditch effort to get indemnified by insurance carriers for the costs of defending a suit that alleged employees illegally harvested body parts. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202540576031&rss=nj 1202540576031 Ignoring Instincts and Giving In to Client's Demand Ends in Reprimand A lawyer who improperly shifted realty transfer fees to buyers at his client's insistence has been reprimanded by the state Supreme Court. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202540575398&rss=nj 1202540575398