By Marcus Rayner | Hunterdon County Democrat
A jury recently awarded a $2.5 million judgment against Warren Township, population 16,000, over its handling of a report the Council received about an intoxicated municipal judge on the bench. With a total budget of $16 million, this is a surcharge residents will feel for years to come if it is not overturned on appeal.
By Marcus Rayner | To the Editor, The Star-Ledger
Warren Township previously ranked in CNNMoney.com as one of the best places to live in the United States. The fact that a single judgment can absorb an eighth of its entire budget, however, threatens that status and its budgetary priorities.
By Marcus Rayner | The Star-Ledger
Pleading guilty to a DUI charge might prompt most people to accept responsibility for endangering themselves and others. In a nod to how notions of personal responsibility - and our courts' appetite for lawsuits - have changed, Voss took Tiffany's restaurant and Kristoffe Tranquilino, the driver of the car he hit, to court.
By Kathleen Hopkins | Asbury Park Press
In response to a recent state Supreme Court decision in an Ocean County case, an assemblyman has introduced a bill that would prohibit drunk drivers from suing the establishments that served them liquor.
By Marcus Rayner | Asbury Park Press
Our civil justice system wasn't intended to offer financial incentives for irresponsible behavior - especially when it's restaurateurs and consumers who are being forced to subsidize the court's interpretation of the law.
By John O'Brien | Legal Newsline
A Pacific Research Institute study that ranked New Jersey's as the most worrisome tort system is proof reform is needed, a group dedicated to that effort said Monday.
By Jessica M. Karmasek | Legal Newsline
Marcus Rayner, executive director of the New Jersey Lawsuit Reform Alliance, or NJLRA, issued a statement Monday in response to the Court's decision.
By Marcus Rayner | New Jersey Law Journal
The Legislature enacted the Consumer Fraud Act in 1960, at a time when only the attorney general could sue to enforce its provisions.
By Kathleen Hopkins | Asbury Park Press
"Today, drunk drivers can evade personal responsibility for their actions and sue restaurateurs in New Jersey for serving them drinks," said AnnMarie McDonald, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Lawsuit Reform Alliance. The Alliance had filed a brief with the court, siding with Tiffany's.
By Matt Kiebus | Asbury Park Press
Nearly five years ago Fredrick Voss of Brick Township in South Jersey rode his motorcycle to Tiffany's Restaurant in Toms River for some drinks. Normally when a man drives himself to the bar he's fairly careful of his alcohol intake. It's for this reason that I rarely drive to a bar and when I do it's merely to meet friends for a couple drinks and catch a game.
