http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/index.jsp Receive critical information - from practice management to product information -- for running a successful small firm. en-us 11/07/2009 Copyright 2009. Incisive Media US Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. http://www.law.com/service/terms_conditions.shtml http://www.law.com/img/newswire/sfb_rss.gif http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/index.jsp Kenneth Javerbaum and Gerald Baker are among New Jersey's leading personal injury litigators and teachers, and now they're going to practice together in a 22-lawyer operation. As of next month, Baker and his two partners will be of counsel to 19-lawyer Javerbaum Wurgaft Hicks Kahn Wikstrom & Sinins. Baker says PI firms of one, two or three lawyers often are hard-pressed to find time for law, the business of law and coping with best practices. Joining a larger operation is the right solution for his firm, he says. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435222418&rss=SFB In four medical malpractice cases between 1997 and 2007, Connecticut judges sanctioned top defense lawyer Madonna Sacco for behavior that violated the Practice Book rules for discovery. Now there's a fifth case, and this time the judge has taken the rare step of finding that Sacco violated the Rules of Professional Conduct. He issued a $11,484 sanction against Sacco, noting that a previous $2,368 penalty in the same case for coaching witnesses who were being deposed "evidently" lacked enough "deterrent effect." http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435224498&rss=SFB New Jersey's Supreme Court put the state back in step with the rest of the nation Wednesday and changed the ethics rules to allow lawyers to mention their inclusion in Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America or Martindale-Hubbell AV rankings. The amendment requires lawyers to include in ads the name of the rating service and a disclaimer saying, "No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court." http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435211682&rss=SFB The downfall of one-time power broker Scott Rothstein amid an alleged fraud that investors say cost them at least $400 million is generating new business for lawyers all over South Florida -- and some of that business is coming from attorneys with the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm. Said well-known criminal defense attorney Fred Haddad, who has been retained by name partner Russell Adler, "Innocent people need a lawyer more than guilty people in something like this." http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435229027&rss=SFB At least two New Jersey law firms that were victimized by phony check scams have gone to court seeking to get the money back from the banks that handled the checks. Freedman & Gersten claims it wired $236,659 to a company in South Korea based on a check that turned out to be fake, while Levitan & Frieland has lodged similar allegations. Freedman is suing Bank of America, on whose assurances it says it relied when it deposited a client check in its attorney trust account and wired most of the money overseas. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435180469&rss=SFB A new book explores technology in the courtroom and its effect on jurors, judges and attorneys. Multimedia presentations can be influential, but with editing and virtual reality animation, for instance, multimedia evidence can walk the line between being helpful and being misleading. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435234149&rss=SFB Pro se litigants are not entitled to greater rights than those with lawyers, a New Jersey appeals court said this week in affirming dismissal of a legal malpractice case under the state's entire controversy doctrine. The judges found that the claims raised in the instant case by the plaintiff -- who sued his lawyer three times, two of them pro se in a small claims action and probate action -- "were well within the penumbra of the factual matrix that was litigated to a conclusion" in a probate case in 2006. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435167689&rss=SFB Naomi Gray was an associate at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker when she took maternity leave more than a year ago. Not ready to return to the 2,000 billable-hour grind, she resigned at the end of March. Her return to work this month, to IP litigation firm Harvey Siskind as a partner, came as the result of good contacts and lucky timing. Gray says conversations with Lawrence Siskind, name partner at the six-lawyer firm, began informally over lunch at the start of the year. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435160309&rss=SFB Georgia's defense bar has welcomed a state Supreme Court decision confirming that legal fees paid to two attorneys by an estate's executor prior to her subsequent guilty plea for her husband's murder could not be clawed back to the estate. The court ruled that Georgia's "slayer statute," which forbids a murderer from profiting from the death of his or her victim, could not be used to bar access to the deceased's assets until there has been a guilty plea, conviction or other "clear and convincing evidence in any judicial proceeding." http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435165766&rss=SFB When attorney Robert Bonsignore filed his first class action against Wal-Mart Stores in 2004, wage-and-hour claims weren't all the rage like they are now, and few attorneys wanted in on the action. Now, a federal judge has granted final approval to a settlement under which Wal-Mart will pay between $65 million and $85 million to resolve 39 consolidated wage-and-hour class actions involving more than 3 million Wal-Mart employees -- the largest wage-and-hour class on record. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435164216&rss=SFB Attorney and GOP fundraiser Scott Rothstein's rise in South Florida's legal and political worlds has ended with the revelation that investors claim he stole in excess of $200 million. The money is tied to a side business that offered structured settlements, which convert a lump sum award to installments for tax and cost-of-living reasons. Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler's founding partner Stuart Rosenfeldt has asked a Florida judge to dissolve the firm and appoint a receiver to take over its finances but not its legal practice. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435135432&rss=SFB