New Jersey’s Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act (TCCWNA) has been turned into an instrument through which the plaintiff’s bar plays “gotcha,” turning harmless technical regulatory violations into cases which generate huge attorneys’ fees, but no real benefit for the consumers supposedly “harmed.” NJCJI is counting down the 6 most absurd TCCWNA lawsuits we’ve seen so far. Know of another lawsuit you think should make our list? Let us know!
Gov. Chris Christie took up his veto pen on Monday and conditionally vetoed an equal pay bill that would have made New Jersey a significant outlier and opened employers in our state up to unprecedented liability. In his five-page veto message, Christie objected to several provisions of the bill that NJCJI had flagged as problematic.
A selection of the need-to-know civil justice news for the week of April 23-29.
“The biggest opponents of arbitration are plaintiffs' attorneys, who make their living in the courtroom. These attorneys are running a smear campaign against arbitration because they know that having a faster and cheaper process for resolving disputes will cut into their bottom line," writes NJCJI President Marcus Rayner in an op-ed in the South Jersey Times.
In order to file a medical malpractice claim, plaintiffs in New Jersey must submit an affidavit of merit from a board-certified medical professional with expertise in the medical procedure at issue attesting that the care provided by the defendant fell outside acceptable professional standards. The affidavit of merit is designed to limit frivolous claims, and ensure that physicians are being justly accused of wrongdoing.
In 2015, doctors and insurers in the United States paid out over $3.95 billion dollars in medical malpractice cases, an increase of 1.68% over the previous year, and a continuation of the trend toward additional payouts after nearly a decade of decline. A closer look at the data reveals that the problem may not be rooted in quality of care, but in law and culture.
A selection of the need-to-know civil justice news for the week of April 16-22.
Over the past few years, we’ve been sounding the alarm about the unique danger New Jersey’s Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act (TCCWNA) poses to our state’s businesses. Unfortunately, it seems members of the trial bar are the only ones listening. Plaintiffs’ attorneys are filing an increasing number of TCCWNA-based class actions against companies doing business in New Jersey.
A selection of the need-to-know civil justice news for the week of April 9-15.
On Thursday, the New Jersey Supreme Court announced that it has come to a decision about what to do about three important topics that it has been wrestling with: the Uniform Bar Examination, admission by motion, and metadata in electronic documents.
