Bringing Common Sense To Our Legal System
Our court system shouldn’t have to deal with suits over [...]
Arbitration One Of A Host Of Issues To Watch In 2017
A recent article by Law360 surveyed New Jersey’s legal community about what issues it thinks we should all keep an eye on as members of the legislature come back to Trenton to finish up the second half of their two-year session and vie for re-election. Employment laws that increase employer liability, such as paid sick leave and equal pay, were identified by many as key issues, and NJCJI’s chief counsel, Alida Kass, pointed out that several anti-arbitration measures have also been introduced.
TCCWNA Lawsuits Highlighted As Top 2016 Legal Trend
The New Jersey Law Journal identified the “explosion of suits based on the New Jersey Truth-In-Consumer Contract Warranty and Notice Act” as one of the top legal issues to emerge during the past year.
Exploding Gas Can The Subject Of 2016’s Most Ludicrous New Jersey Lawsuit
The votes are in! This year’s most Ludicrous New Jersey Lawsuit is the dispute over whether Walmart should be liable because a gas can it sold exploded when someone tried to start a fire with it.
New Jersey Is A “Judicial Hellhole”
The American Tort Reform Association has released its annual “Judicial Hellholes” report, and New Jersey is near the top of its list. ATRA notes that our state’s consumer protection laws are far from mainstream, and our court system is becoming hostile to arbitration agreements, in direct contravention of federal law.
NJCJI Asks High Court to Nix Some TCCWNA Class Actions
The New Jersey Civil Justice Institute has filed an amicus brief in a class action brought by consumers who claim a restaurant’s failure to clearly post prices in the menu on all drink items violates New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act (CFA) and Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty, and Notice Act (TCCWNA). NJCJI has been spearheading the effort to reform both the Consumer Fraud Act and the Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty, and Notice Act, so we are very interested in what the court will do with this case and a similar case where the court will decide whether “charging different prices for the same beverage, depending upon where in the restaurant the beverage was served” can be the basis of a CFA and TCCWNA class action.
NJCJI Opposes the “Wage Theft” Bill
The New Jersey Civil Justice Institute strongly opposes the so-called “wage theft” bill the Assembly Labor Committee is holding a hearing on Monday. A862 does much more than protect employees against wage theft, which is, of course, already illegal. As amended, this bill would impose massive penalties on businesses who make well-intentioned errors on contentious questions, like the independent contractor/employee distinction, and would provide a backdoor for getting all the worst aspects of the pending “paid sick leave” legislation enacted.
2016’s Most Ludicrous Lawsuit Dishonorable Mentions
Not every ridiculous lawsuit filed in the Garden State can make it into the upper echelon of absurdity, so this year we are awarding Dishonorable Mentions to a handful of suits that didn’t quite make the cut, but still leave us scratching our heads in disbelief.
Cast Your Vote for 2016’s Most Ludicrous Lawsuit
A lot of ridiculous lawsuits were filed in New Jersey this year, but only one can be crowned 2016’s Most Ludicrous Lawsuit. Cast your vote now for this year’s “winner.”
It’s Not That Courts Can’t Do It, It’s That They Shouldn’t Have To
In a recent issue of the New Jersey Law Journal, the Editorial Board hailed the work of the U.S. District Court judge in California that quickly disposed of the headline-generating case over the amount of ice Starbucks puts in its iced coffees. Wonderful. As the Board notes, the case “comes dangerously close to warranting Rule 11 sanctions.”