On May 21st, the New Jersey Civil Justice Council hosted a policy teleforum on the recommendations of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on Expedited Civil Actions. Committee member Russell Deyo, the retired Vice President and General Counsel of Johnson & Johnson, gave call participants an inside look at how the committee divided up work and made the decision to recommend a mandatory pilot program.

 

Deyo began his remarks with an overview of the Advisory Committee’s recommendations. As he went through the extensive list of proposed changes, Deyo noted that comments received by the Committee, and the practice experiences of the 40 attorneys on the Committee were very influential as different ideas were debated, shaping many of the Committee’s recommendations. For example, the decision to include only Tier I and Tier II actions came about because Committee members had experience trying all sorts of civil cases and were thus able to say that these types of cases would most benefit from the proposed changes.

 

When asked what impact Chief Justice Rabner’s re-nomination would have on the judicial rule-making process, and in particular this proposal, Deyo indicated that Rabner and other members of the high court, including Advisory Committee member Justice Fernandez-Vina, had been nothing but supportive of the proposal. Unless significant concerns are raised during the comment period, Deyo expects the Committee’s recommendations to be put into place quite soon.

 

Comments on the report are being accepted until June 18, 2014. They should be emailed to Comments.Mailbox@judiciary.state.nj.us or mailed to:

 

Glenn A. Grant, J.A.D.

Acting Administrative Director of the Courts

Attn: Comments on Expedited Civil Actions

Hughes Justice Complex; P.O. Box 037

Trenton, NJ 08625-0037

 

Commenters must include their name and address, and should be aware that their comments are subject to public disclosure. Click here to read the comments NJCJI submitted in support of the recommendations.