Balancing the state budget and funding all of the programs the state thinks are important is not an easy task. Revenue growth is steady, but slow, and we are already one of the highest taxed states in the nation, so there is little room to maneuver.
On February 28, Gov. Christie delivered his eighth and final budget address to a joint session of the legislature, officially kicking off negotiations on the state’s FY 2018 budget. The legislature’s focus for the next few months will essentially be on the budget, as it must be passed by July 1.
Anyone who says our state does not have a lawsuit problem need only look at this week’s newsletter to see there is no shortage of crazy lawsuits being filed in the Garden State.
As the stories below illustrate, our class action system is broken. But it is not beyond repair. Judges must step up their gatekeeping role and bring greater scrutiny to class action cases and settlements.
They say time flies when you are having fun, but [...]
Reading about bizarre lawsuits, like the one NJ.com reported on this week where a guy is suing because he tripped over a Christmas tree set out at the curb, is somewhat of a guilty pleasure. It’s fun to imagine what in the world the plaintiff and their attorney were thinking. Although it is hard to assume it was something other than the “money, money, money, money, money” refrain in the classic O'Jays’ tune.
Asm. Jack Ciattarelli (R-Somerville), one of the top Republican candidates for governor, has accepted NJCJI’s invitation to speak at our annual Winter Policy Forum.
According to the New York Times, Josh Finkelman is the “Erin Brockovich of Super Bowl tickets.” After paying well over face value for tickets to Super Bowl XLVIII, which was held at Met Life Stadium in 2014, he sued the National Football League under New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act, arguing he should have been able to attend the game without buying expensive tickets on the secondary market.
Both houses of the New Jersey Legislature held their first voting session of 2017 on Monday, January 23, and each house took up a bill the New Jersey Civil Justice Institute is opposing.
The New Jersey Supreme Court has released its opinion in a long-running lawsuit over the acne medicine Accutane. Instead of throwing out the case as time-barred like NJCJI suggested it do, the Court adopted a new test for determining what statute of limitations should apply in case brought by an out-of-state plaintiff.
