Christie alters course on Supreme Court nominee (via NJ.com)
Gov. Chris Christie plans to nominate Robert Hanna as a lower court judge, apparently altering course on the nominee he had championed for the Supreme Court, NJ.com has confirmed. Christie has filed the pre-nomination documents for Hanna, whose nomination…
Christie seeks to delay start date for same-sex marriages (via NJ.com)
TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie’s administration said it will seek to delay the Oct. 21 start date for same-sex marriages in New Jersey and is asking the state Supreme Court to fast-track an appeal in the case, according to a letter sent to the justices…
Transcript from statement read at the Dec. 5, 2012 Oceanport Borough Council meeting by Councilman Joseph Irace:
Oceanport Councilman Joe Irace
Tonight we are being “asked” under court order, to approve an affordable housing plan for the Borough of Oceanport for COAH Round 2. The entire debate on Affordable Housing is one that I have trouble understanding intellectually, socially and fiscally. While we all embrace the idea of lower priced homes, where newly married couples and our aging population can remain in our town for now and years to come, I have a hard time accepting the fact that the Courts, and not our legislature, have the ability to mandate how many homes and the type of homes that a municipality must provide. This is especially troublesome to me because the rest of the town bears the tax burden of this unfunded judicial mandate.
This COAH legislation and the resulting judicial decisions have been a social planning experiment gone awry from the very beginning. The confusing and often contradictory laws and court rulings arising from Rounds 1 and 2 of COAH have led to the Borough being sued for lack of compliance and have cost our residents hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. The entire system is broken and needs to be fixed.
Posted: September 27th, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: COAH, Joe Irace, NJ Judiciary, NJ State Legislature | Tags: COAH, Joe Irace, NJ Legislature, NJ Supreme Court, Oceanport | Comments Off on Joe Irace’s December Comments On COAH
N.J. Supreme Court to issue major affordable housing decision (via NJ.com)
Keith A. Muccilli/For The Star-Ledger TRENTON — The state Supreme Court will hand down a long-awaited decision today on how many affordable-housing units New Jersey’s towns must provide for their lowest-income residents. At issue, again, is the…
Not Funny: NJ Supreme Court Says Judges Can’t Do Stand Up (via Techdirt)
Humor: some people have it, other people don’t. For the humoursly challenged, exposing the funny takes several ingredients. First, you need to be in a position to observe everyday occurrences that can be mocked or exposed for ridicule. Then you need…
Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande announced yesterday that she will introduce legislation that will protect the sender of a text message from civil liability if the receiver of the text is involved in a car accident while reading the message.
Thank goodness, and let’s hope that legislation get fast tracked
In what can only be considered a gift to the overpopulated legal community, the Appellate Division of New Jersey’s Superior Court last week ruled that senders of text messages could be liable for accidents that occur while the receivers are reading them “when a texter knows or has special reason to know that the intended recipient is driving and is likely to read the text message while driving, the texter has a duty to users of the public roads to refrain from sending the driver a text at that time.”
What is a “special reason to know?” That is new legal distinction that will have to be defined in another expensive court decision, unless Casagrande’s common sense legislation is passed and signed into law before the next ambulance chaser gets his law school buddy on the bench to define it.
Imagine the cases, and legal fees, this new legal liability will create. Imagine the increases in insurance premiums, auto, homeowner’s, and business liability, this will cause.
If a spouse texts “pick milk” to his or her significant other during rush hour, and the receiving spouse gets into a car accident, the couple’s homeowner’s insurance company will get dragged into the law suit filed by the ambulance chaser.
Imagine the deposition questions asked at $250+ per hour per attorney:
Posted: September 5th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Caroline Casagrande, Lawsuit Reform, NJ Courts, NJ Judiciary, NJ State Legislature | Tags: Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande, Caroline Casagrande, frivolous lawsuits, NJ Courts, NJ Legislature, texting, texting while driving, texting while the receiver might be driving | 2 Comments »
Justice Helen E. Hoens. photo via NJ Courts website
Governor Christie announced the nomination of Judge Faustino J. Fernandez-Vina to replace Justice Helen Hoens on the State Supreme Court during a press conference at the State House this afternoon.
Hoens, who was up for reappointment after seven years, will not be re-nominated, Christie said, because State Senator Ray Lesniak, a senior Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently said that Hoens would not be reconfirmed as political retribution for Christie not re-nominating Justice John Wallace in 2010. Christie said that Hoens took the news as a professional and thanked him for not putting her through an arduous and fruitless re-confirmation hearing. Hoen’s term expires in late October.
There are currently two vacancies, of seven positions, on the State Supreme Court. Christie nominated Monmouth County Judge David F. Bauman and Board of Public Utilities President Robert Hanna to fill those vacancies in December of last year. The Democratically controlled State Senate has not acted on their nominations, despite the fact that both men have been previously confirmed by the Senate for their current positions.
If all three of Christie’s current nominees are confirmed, a majority of the Court, 4 Justices, will be Christie appointees. Justice Anne M. Patterson was nominated by Christie in May of 2010. She was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in 19 months later in September of 2011.
Judge Fernandez-Vina, a Cuban-American and a Republican, was first nominated to the Superior Court in Camden County by Governor Jim McGreevey in 2004. He was re-nominated by Christie an reconfirmed by the Senate in 2011. In 2012, Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, a Corzine appointee, named Fernandez-Vina the Assignment Judge of the Camden County Vicinage.
Posted: August 12th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Chris Christie, NJ Courts, NJ Judiciary, NJ Supreme Court | Tags: Chris Christie, Judge David Bauman, Judge Faustino J. Fernandez-Vina, Justice Helen Hoens, NJ Supreme Court, Robert Hanna, Senator Ray Lesniak | 2 Comments »Our friend Matt Rooney at Save Jersey reports that New Jersey’s Superior Court’s Appellate Division ruled that the Special Election for U. S. Senate called by Governor Christie passes legal muster.
Rooney says that an appeal to the State Supreme Court is possible.
Click here to read the Court’s ruling.
Posted: June 13th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2013 Election, NJ Courts, NJ Judiciary, Senate Special Election | Tags: Appellate Division of Superior Court, Special Senate Election | Comments Off on Appelate Court OK’s Special ElectionGovernor Christie’s nomination of Judge David F. Bauman to the State Supreme Court has prompted a mid-term reassignment of the Superior Court Judges in Monmouth County.
Assignment Judge Lawrence M. Lawson told MMM that effective January 2, 2013 Judge Paul Escandon is transfered from Family Court to Civil Court, Judge Honora O’Brien Kilgallen will move from Civil Court to Criminal Court, Judge Linda Grasso-Jones will switch from hearing Civil matters to Family matters, and Judge James J. McGann will transfer from Civil Court to Criminal Court hearing Juvenile cases. Judge Leslie-Ann M. Justus will remain in Family Court and take over Escandon’s calendar.
MMM called Lawson for comment on a New York Post story over the weekend that said Escandon would not be hearing divorce cases “after a months-long campaign by women who say he systematically cheated them from the bench.” Lawson said the Post story was a “rehash.” Escandon has not been hearing new divorces, rather, he has been presiding over non-matrimonial cases and post-Judgment matters in Family Court, since July.
Escandon’s July reassignment was caused by Judge Michael Guadagno’s elevation to the Appellate Court and these recent reassignments are the result of Bauman’s anticipated elevation to the Supreme Court, according to Lawson.
Lawson said that the Monmouth County Vicinage currently has six vacancies with a seventh coming if Bauman is confirmed a Supreme Court Associate Justice by the State Senate. There are four pending Judicial nominations for Monmouth County pending before the Senate.
Escandon’s tenure on the Family Court bench has been a subject of controversy since May when former Long Branch resident Rachel Alintoff complained to Governor Christie at at Town Hall Meeting in Garfield about Escandon’s rulings, one of which had been overturned on appeal, in her divorce case. Since then, a group of divorce litigants, mostly women, have been holding periodic protests about Escandon at the Monmouth County Court House and the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct has initiated an investigation into Escandon based upon Alintoff’s complaints.
Posted: December 24th, 2012 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Monmouth County, Monmouth County Court, NJ Courts, NJ Judiciary | Tags: Judge Honora O'Brien Kilgallen, Judge James J. McGann, Judge Lawrence M. Lawson, Judge Leslie-Ann M. Justus, Judge Linda Grasso -Jones, Judge Michael Guadagno, Judge Paul Escandon, Paul Escandon, Rachel Alintoff | 7 Comments »© Copyright 2024 | MoreMonmouthMusings | All Rights Reserved