The Supreme Court recently decided the important question of what circumstances justify the police relying on a 911 call in order to stop a motor vehicle. The case arose from a California case in which a California Highway Patrol officer stopped a pick up truck because it matched the description of a vehicle that a 911 caller had recently reported as having run her off the road. As the police officers approached the pick up truck, they smelled marijuana and conducted a warrantless search of the pick up truck’s bed and found 30 pounds of marijuana. The occupants of the pick truck made a motion to suppress evidence arguing that the 911 call was not a valid basis to stop the truck when led to the search in which the marijuana was found.
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As reported in the New York Post, a Manhattan woman who suffers from post 9/11 stress disorder was sued for eviction by the co-op board of her building because she has a service dog which they claim she does not need and is a ruse to get around the co-op’s stringent no pets allowed policy. The dog in question is a small 14 lbs. mixed breed who was certified as a service dog by the Health Department. Despite that document and her doctor’s letter stating the owner of the dog is disabled, the co-op has taken the position in court that she is not disabled and the dog is not a service dog.
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My first blog entry on this website concerned Trayvon Martin. At that time, no one knew what was going to happen. From a strictly legal point of view, the case is yet another illustration of how difficult it can be to prove a defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Casey Anthony. OJ. Cases abound where the results seem to defy logic and common sense.
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Every state uses a breathalyzer machine to determine the level of blood alcohol of motorists suspected to be under the influence of alcohol. New Jersey is one of two states, the other being Alabama, that use a machine known as the alcotest machine manufactured by a company known as Drager. The scientific validity of the alcotest machine was challenged by the DWI defense bar and the case wound up before the New Jersey Supreme Court in the seminal case of State v. Chun.
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The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in a case of first impression that a criminal defendant can be required to appear at his sentencing even if he does not want to be there. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that trial judges have the ultimate authority to decide whether a defendant can be compelled to appear at his sentencing. Trial judges are instructed to balance the interests of everyone involved including the victims and their families.
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In a case in which the issue was tried for the first time in New Jersey, Millenium Mercedes Benz in Bridgewater, New Jersey was found liable for selling a Mercedes to a buyer for falsely representing it was a leased car that was being turned in when in fact it was a loaner car. The jury found that the sales person's misrepresentation violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and awarded the buyer $10,000 in damages which was trebled under that law to $30,000 in damages. The dealer was also ordered to pay the buyer's lawyer legal fees and expenses in the sum of $45,202.
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The current "scandals" involving General Petreaus and General Allen illustrate the perils of e.mail. People often mistakenly believe that e.mails are private and cannot be accessed after they are deleted. In general, if you e.mail from a work computer you should have no expectation that the employer will not be able to access your private e.mail using other providers such as gmail or yahoo and the like. E.mails are not anonymous because providers and others can generally locate who the person sending the e.mail is.
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A New Jersey Appellate Court reinstated a terminated employee's disability bias lawsuit over a positive alcohol test. Under New Jersey law, alcoholism is a protected disability which an employer cannot use as a basis alone to either discriminate against an employee or terminate the employee. The rationale for this protection is that alcoholism is an illness which can be treated and therefore it would be unlawful for an employer to discriminate against someone who was in treatment and/or had recovered and whose job performance was not affected. Obviously, if an employee's alcoholism affects an employee's work performance, the poor work performance would be a lawful ground to terminate the employee.
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The best way to find out if the Superior Court, also known as County Court, in your county is open is to check the official website of the judiciary, www.judiciary.state.nj.us. If you type "New Jersey Courts online" as the search term you will also get to the same website. If you need to find out if the Municipal Court in your town is open, you should call the local police.
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The law concerning DWI and DWI refusal of a breath test is constantly changing in New Jersey. However, in general, the trend is to both enhance punishment and make it more difficult to challenge charges. Last year, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that a breath-test refusal cannot serve as a prior conviction in a DWI case. Last week, the New Jersey Appellate Division ruled that the converse is not true.
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A Manhattan Criminal Judge has ruled that seven pages of tweets by an Occupy Wall Street protestor must be turned over to prosecutors. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office subpoenaed the protestor's tweets arguing that they were relevant to his criminal case for disorderly conduct on the Brooklyn Bridge because they "might" contain information which contradicted the information he gave to the police.
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Everyone is so familiar with the standard Miranda warning that they can almost repeat it by memory: "you have the right to remain silent and anything you say can be used against you in a court of law." In general, police use a form in which they read the suspect their rights from a sheet and then ask the person to initial, sign and date the form. Since almost all custodial interviews by police are now videotaped or recorded, it is difficult to prove that the police violated the suspect's rights by failing to give the Miranda warning.
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A New Jersey court ruled this week that a suspect's silence at the scene of a DWI/DUI and/or car accident cannot be used against the person to prove guilt. This is a significant ruling as there have been cases when a person's silence in the face of questioning in the DWI/DUI context has been used to prove that the person is intoxicated. The idea here is that if someone is intoxicated that they are too drunk or high to answer simple questions or even more complex questions.
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Governor Christie signed a law last week that makes drug courts mandatory for all people charged with possession of controlled dangerous substances. Previously, the drug courts were only available to first time offenders.
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On January 14, 2010, the New Jersey legislature passed a bill known as "Ricci's law" which required that drivers convicted of DWI and of refusal to submit to a alcotest (breathalyzer) test must have interlocks installed in thier car once their license suspension is over. The locks remain in place for a minimum of six months. These devices can cost hundreds of dollars to install and carry monthly fees of $50 to $100 to maintain.
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In good news for New Jersey drivers, an Appellate New Jersey court has issued a ruling suspending adjudication of tickets which were given as a result of a video camera surveillance. Apparently, some of the cameras did not meet the required technical requirements to be used to convict people who violate traffic rules.
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Under current New Jersey law, a person cannot get a conditional discharge for any disorderly persons' offenses in Municipal Court. A conditional discharge generally allows someone to have the case dismissed if they stay out of trouble for a period of time which is usually six months or a year. As it is now, in Superior Court for first time offenders charged with less serious indictable offenses, a pre-trial intervention program exists which functions essentially like a conditional discharge.
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It has been widely reported that the Democratice controlled New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee may not approve Governor Christie's second person to be appointed to the New Jersey Supreme Court. The first nomination was not approved as questions lingered over tax problems relating to the candidate's parents' liquor store in Yonkers, New York. Reportedly, numerous cash deposits were made of $9,000 to avoid reporting income and paying taxes.
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On May 25, 2012, in a case of first impression meaning that had not decided the issue before in New Jersey, a Court in Morris Superior Court ruled that a young woman who was texting a driver at the time of the accident was not liable legally for the accident which occurred because the driver was distracted.
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New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination ("LAD") has a very broad reach and through recent court decisions has been extended to situations where most people would not think that it applied. As its name implies, the LAD is intended to allow people who are discriminated against based on race, nathional origin, religion, and disability to sue the person or company they believe discriminated against them.
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President Reagan said trust but verify. In the last week, two prominent business and school leaders pled guilty to bilking local towns. In the more famous case, the former superintendant of the Toms River school system pled guilty to a scheme in which he received over a million dollars in bribes for steering insusuance contracts to crooked vendors. Since his salary was about $225,000 per year with a significant pension, it is somewhat difficult to understand why he would do this and now face years in federal prison where there is no parole.
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About two years ago, a new law was passed in New Jersey allowing for medical marijuana to be sold at a limited and highly regulated number of privately owned places. It is not clear if they were going to be called stores, clinics or something else.
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The U.S. Supreme Court held last week that police have the right to strip search anyone arrested who is in police custody at a station. This decision resolved the split in court authority on the issue as some courts had held that the right to strip search depended on what the person who was in custody was charged with.
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I was very upset when I heard about the Trayvon Martin shooting. As a parent, it is inconveivable to me that one of my sons could be walking to a 7-11 to get a bag of skittles and an iced tea and not make it home.
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An appellate court recently overturned the decision of a Family Court Judge in Essex County concerning a very contested divorce that the Judge heard the trial of. What is remarkable is that the trial took two weeks while the husband and wife fought over everything. According to the court opinion, the husband was a doctor with several offices and one of the primary issues was the value of his practice which would be the basis for the child support and alimony award to the wife.
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As reported in the New Jersey Law Journal, the Municipal Court Judge of Linden was fired because he tried a case in which two cousins were charged with stealing chrome wheels from outside a home in Linden and neither the Municipal Prosecutor or defense lawyers were present.
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The New Jersey Supreme Court is re-examining its decision from two years ago that required the police to show a higher level of probable cause and emergency circumstances to justify a warrantless search of a car. Before that ruling two years ago, the law in New Jersey allowed the police to search a car if obtaining a warrant was impractical.
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