News

October 15, 2019 Relying upon the common law, New Jersey courts have long utilized additur (adding to a jury’s excessively low damages award) and remittitur (reducing a jury’s excessively high damages award) when the trial judge concluded that there had been a miscarriage of justice, and that the verdict’s award […]

October 11, 2019 New Jersey hospitals are required by the Patient Safety Act (“PSA”) to establish multidisciplinary patient safety committees, to help evaluate the facilities’ patient care and safety practices. Among these committees’ obligations are to perform self-critical analyses, called a “Root Cause Analysis,” when there is a “serious preventable […]

October 4, 2019 In an unpublished decision the New Jersey Appellate Division held in Mark Ragnacci v. Medhat Ghaba, a verbal threshold motor vehicle accident case, that the defense was permitted to cross-examine Plaintiff’s medical expert regarding a report he authored in Plaintiff’s prior workers’ compensation action. More specifically, the […]

October 1, 2019 Senate Bill 645 (“SB 645”) was introduced by California’s Senator Monning (D) on February 22, 2019 and was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on August 30, 2019. SB 645 adds a new section to the California Code of Civil Procedure relating to the timing of […]

September 26, 2019 In the recent case of Salas v. Adirondack Tr. Lines, Inc. (172 A.D.3d 775 [2d Dept. May 1, 2019]) the Appellate Division, Second Department ruled that a bus operator was not required to provide assistance to a disembarking passenger who neither requested assistance, nor was she visibly […]

September 24, 2019 The Supreme Court case of Haines v. Taft , 237 N.J. 271 (2019) held that uncompensated medical expenses incurred as a result of an automobile accident, that exceeded the plaintiffs’ $15,000 PIP (Personal Injury Protection) coverage limits, were inadmissible and therefore not recoverable in motor vehicle negligence […]

September 23, 2019 New Jersey’s Appellate Division issued an unpublished decision in Antoinette Marra v. Hopatcong Senior Center, et al., holding that Plaintiff, Antoinette Marra’s significant physical injuries and resulting depression did not constitute extraordinary circumstances excusing the filing of a late notice of claim under the Tort Claims Act. […]

September 18, 2019 In an August 15, 2019 published decision, captioned Jodi Shaw, et al. v. Brian Shand, et al., A-5686-17T1, the New Jersey Appellate Division reversed a trial court’s grant of partial summary judgment to a licensed home inspector, finding that home inspectors could be liable under New Jersey’s […]

September 16, 2019 This morning, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that in an asbestos personal injury action, a settled defendant’ s answers to interrogatories and/or corporate representative’ s deposition testimony, whether offered in the instant case or in another asbestos case in any jurisdiction, may be admissible as statements […]