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New Jersey
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February 26, 2024
NJ, Solvay Push Back Against Town's Bid To Pause PFAS Deal
New Jersey and the American arm of Belgian chemical company Solvay have slammed a Garden State town's bid to pause final approval of a $393 million settlement over "forever chemical" contamination, calling it disingenuous and arguing such a move would only delay the assistance the settlement would provide towns impacted by the pollution.
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February 26, 2024
Black Truck Drivers Can't Revive Race Bias Suit At 3rd Circ.
Two Black truck drivers for a supermarket chain couldn't beat "voluminous evidence" that they were fired for threatening a co-worker who one called a "rat" or a "snitch," the Third Circuit ruled, refusing to revive their suit blaming race bias for their termination.
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February 26, 2024
Justices Pass On Venue Fight In Erie Indemnity Fees Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review the Third Circuit's refusal to transfer a case challenging Erie Indemnity Co. management fees from state court back to federal court, preserving the lower court's precedential ruling that the matter does not qualify as a class action under the Class Action Fairness Act.
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February 24, 2024
Up Next At High Court: Social Media Laws & Bump Stocks
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments related to three big-ticket cases this week in a pair of First Amendment challenges to Florida and Texas laws prohibiting social media platforms from removing content or users based on their viewpoints and a dispute over the federal government's authority to ban bump stocks.
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February 23, 2024
US Trustee Objects To Rite Aid Disclosure Statement
The U.S. Trustee's Office has flagged what it called "objectionable" proposals from Rite Aid to hold post-confirmation votes on some Chapter 11 plan releases, as well as shortening senior secured voting and preemptively deeming unsecured creditors as detractors.
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February 23, 2024
Rutgers Law Students Rip Classmate's Bias Suit Subpoenas
A pair of Rutgers Law School students asked a New Jersey state court to shut down subpoenas they received as part of a classmate's suit accusing the school of antisemitic bias for opening a disciplinary investigation against him after he spoke out against the same pair of students for allegedly spreading antisemitism.
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February 23, 2024
Ex-Professor Atty Hits NJ University With Retaliatory Firing Suit
New Jersey City University has been slammed with a lawsuit in state court from an attorney and former professor who claims he was demoted and then fired in retaliation for reporting that a former university official allegedly sexually harassed a student.
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February 23, 2024
ACLU Kicks Off Clemency Project To Reduce NJ Incarceration
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey has launched a new initiative aimed at reducing sentences for incarcerated victims of domestic violence and people facing extreme trial penalties, advocating for a framework that calls on the governor to holistically consider injustices facing those groups of people when making decisions on clemency.
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February 23, 2024
Ex-Software Co. Worker Axed For Unpaid Wage Ask, Suit Says
A software company fired an 86-year-old employee after he complained that he was not paid for months of work, the worker alleged in a lawsuit filed in New Jersey state court, saying his former employer owes him more than $16,000 in unpaid wages and $32,000 in damages.
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February 22, 2024
YouTube Privacy Judge 'Flummoxed' By Kids' Liability Theory
A California federal judge indicated Thursday that she's open to trimming a revived proposed class action alleging Google and companies that host child-friendly YouTube channels illegally collected children's data from targeted ads, expressing concerns about the requested relief and saying she's "flummoxed" by the consumers' belated liability theory against the channels' owners.
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February 22, 2024
NYC Doc Charged Over $20M Lab-Fraud Kickback Scheme
A federal grand jury in New Jersey has returned an indictment charging a medical doctor with receiving kickbacks in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary tests from lab companies that submitted roughly $20.7 million in false Medicare claims, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
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February 22, 2024
3rd Circ. Won't Protect AbbVie's Atty-Client Communications
The Third Circuit has denied AbbVie Inc.'s bid to block a Pennsylvania federal court's order to turn over attorney communications from a patent case allegedly cooked up just to extend the company's monopoly on a testosterone drug, but the appellate court's explanation remained under seal Thursday.
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February 22, 2024
Fire Product Makers Try To Move PFAS Suit To Fed. Court
A group of chemical companies that produce fire suppressants are seeking to move to federal court a suit brought by the Connecticut attorney general looking to rein in the use of PFAS chemicals, saying they are entitled to a federal forum to exercise a "government contractor" defense.
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February 22, 2024
AI Software Co. Hasn't Actually Developed AI, Suit Says
Software and data engineering company Innodata Inc. has been hit with a proposed class action alleging its stock price dropped more than 30% after a financial research firm published a report saying its promised artificial intelligence technology is "smoke and mirrors" and that its marketing claims are like "putting lipstick on a pig."
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February 22, 2024
Bumble Reaches $315K Settlement In Criminal Screening Case
Dating app company Bumble has agreed to pay $315,000 and change its business practices to settle claims brought by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin that it failed to disclose its criminal background-check screening policies.
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February 22, 2024
NJ Public Defender Gets Partial Win In Atty's Bias Case
A New Jersey state judge on Thursday tossed several allegations against the state's Office of the Public Defender in a suit brought by a former employee alleging that she was forced to resign because of discrimination and a hostile work environment, ruling that she failed to provide the state agency with proper notice of her complaint.
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February 22, 2024
B. Riley Stands By Franchise Group Deal After Internal Review
B. Riley Financial reaffirmed its commitment to the $2.6 billion take-private deal for Franchise Group Inc. despite the misconduct of former Franchise Group CEO Brian Kahn, saying on Thursday that its audit committee determined through a nine-week internal review that B. Riley had no knowledge of or involvement in the misconduct.
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February 21, 2024
TD Bank Customers Seek OK On $32.2M Overdraft Fee Deal
A class of TD Bank customers asked a New Jersey federal judge Wednesday for her preliminary approval of a $21.97 million deal over allegedly improper overdraft fees in debit card transactions, plus $10.25 million in reductions to outstanding balances for accounts that were closed with amounts due to the bank.
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February 21, 2024
'No Theft' Of Eagles Lyrics, Trio Says As NY Trial Opens
Three men accused of trying to sell stolen draft lyrics from the classic Eagles album "Hotel California" told a New York state judge presiding over their criminal bench trial on Wednesday that there was "no theft" and that prosecutors owed them an apology.
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February 21, 2024
3rd Circ. Finds Art Supply Co. Illegally Fired Temp. Worker
The Third Circuit backed a National Labor Relations Board decision that found an art supply company illegally let go of a Black temporary worker who raised complaints about racism in the workplace, saying Wednesday there was enough evidence to uphold the board's conclusions.
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February 21, 2024
Justices Squabble Over Emergency Review Of EPA Smog Plan
The U.S. Supreme Court's liberal wing denounced during oral argument Wednesday their colleagues' decision to consider the merits of four related emergency requests to prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from implementing a plan to reduce cross-state pollution without first getting lower court input.
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February 21, 2024
SPAC Boom Costs Auditor $2M In PCAOB Fine
New Jersey-based auditing firm WithumSmith+Brown PC was sanctioned with a $2 million fine Wednesday by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which accused the company of taking on more work than it could handle as the market for special purpose acquisition companies boomed.
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February 21, 2024
CoStar, Hotel Giants Accused Of Data-Driven Price-Fixing
Hilton, Hyatt and other big name hotel operators are the target of a proposed class action alleging they colluded with hospitality industry analytics firm CoStar Group Inc. to fix prices in luxury hotel markets in Seattle and other major U.S. cities, according to a suit filed in Washington federal court.
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February 21, 2024
Rite Aid Gets OK To End Former Queens Store Lease
Rite Aid Corp. was given permission Wednesday to reject a lease and sublease for a former store in Queens, New York, after a New Jersey bankruptcy judge found that doing so would benefit the debtor's estate.
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February 21, 2024
Scammer Freed By Trump Indicted On New Charges
A previously convicted scammer whose sentence was commuted by former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a grand jury on new charges that he began running multiple rackets, including a fraudulent aid-for-Ukraine scheme, shortly after leaving prison, New Jersey's top federal prosecutor said.
Expert Analysis
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NJ's Natural Resource Damage Order May Be Helpful For Cos.
A recent New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection order clarifying its natural resource damage enforcement practices may finally provide regulated companies with long-sought guidance to assess environmental liability at contaminated sites in a reasonable and cost-effective manner, say attorneys at Archer & Greiner.
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Without Stronger Due Diligence, Attys Risk AML Regulation
Amid increasing pressure to mitigate money laundering and terrorism financing risks in gatekeeper professions, the legal industry will need to clarify and strengthen existing client due diligence measures — or risk the federal regulation attorneys have long sought to avoid, says Jeremy Glicksman at the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.
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Insureds' Notice Pleading May Be Insufficient In Federal Court
A recent New Jersey federal court ruling in Bauman v. Hanover Insurance held that bare-bones notice pleading was insufficient and dismissed the policyholder's coverage complaint, a reminder that courts may require more than an expression of general disagreement with an insurance company's denial letter to proceed with the case, says Eugene Killian at The Killian Firm.
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Cannabis Labor Peace Laws Lay Fertile Ground For Unions
State legislatures are increasingly passing cannabis laws that encourage or even mandate labor peace agreements as a condition for licensure, and though open questions remain about the constitutionality of such statutes, unionization efforts are unlikely to slow down, says Peter Murphy at Saul Ewing.
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Every Lawyer Can Act To Prevent Peer Suicide
Members of the legal industry can help prevent suicide among their colleagues, and better protect their own mental health, by learning the predictors and symptoms of depression among attorneys and knowing when and how to get practical aid to peers in crisis, says Joan Bibelhausen at Minnesota Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers.
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Building On Successful Judicial Assignment Reform In Texas
Prompt action by the Judicial Conference could curtail judge shopping and improve the efficiency and procedural fairness of the federal courts by implementing random districtwide assignment of cases, which has recently proven successful in Texas patent litigation, says Dabney Carr at Troutman Pepper.
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Do Videoconferences Establish Jurisdiction With Defendants?
What it means to have minimum contacts in a foreign jurisdiction is changing as people become more accustomed to meeting via video, and defendants’ participation in videoconferencing may be used as a sword or a shield in courts’ personal jurisdiction analysis, says Patrick Hickey at Moye White.
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Prepare Now To Comply With NJ Temp Worker Law
New Jersey temporary staffing firms and their clients must prepare now for the time-consuming compliance requirements created by the controversial new Temporary Laborers' Bill of Rights, or face steep penalties when the law's strict wage, benefit and record-keeping rules go live in May and August, say attorneys at Duane Morris.
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Opinion
Humanism Should Replace Formalism In The Courts
The worrying tendency for judges to say "it's just the law talking, not me" in American decision writing has coincided with an historic decline in respect for the courts, but this trend can be reversed if courts develop understandable legal standards and justify them in human terms, says Connecticut Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher.
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Don't Let Client Demands Erode Law Firm Autonomy
As clients increasingly impose requirements for attorney hiring and retention related to diversity and secondment, law firms must remember their ethical duties, as well as broader issues of lawyer development, culture and firm integrity, to maintain their independence while meaningfully responding to social changes, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.
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Distressed Cannabis Cos. Have A Few Options, With Caveats
As the cannabis industry falls on tough times and a potential recession looms, attorneys should understand the limited restructuring options available to distressed cannabis businesses, absent key bankruptcy protections — and the pitfalls these options may present, say Griffen Thorne and Ethan Minkin at Harris Bricken.
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6th Circ. Ruling's Seismic Shift In FCA Kickback Causation
It is difficult to overstate the significance of the Sixth Circuit’s recent decision in the False Claims Act kickback case U.S. v. Hathaway, which shifts the government's burden of proof by adopting a more defense-friendly causation standard and curbing an expansive definition of remuneration, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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3rd Circ. Ruling Offers Tools To Manage Exempt Employees
The Third Circuit’s recent opinion in Higgins v. Bayada Home Health, finding the Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers to deduct paid time off for missed employee productivity targets, gives companies another resource for managing exempt employee inefficiency or absenteeism, says Laura Lawless at Squire Patton.
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3rd Circ. Samsung Opinion Is A Plaintiffs' Arbitration Playbook
The Third Circuit's recent precedential opinion in White v. Samsung exemplifies language plaintiffs can use when a defendant delays in moving to compel arbitration — and its criticism of pro-arbitration rules invented by other courts can also help plaintiffs avoid the dispute resolution method altogether, say Raphael Janove and Josh Brooks at Pollock Cohen.
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Navigating High Court's Options In Insurer Choice Of Law
Depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court approaches the question of when insurers may invoke choice-of-law clauses in maritime contracts to dodge state-specific liability, the Great Lakes v. Raiders Retreat Realty decision may mean significant changes not only for admiralty law disputes, but for the insurance industry more broadly, say Lara Cassidy and Adriana Perez at Hunton.