Category Archives: News

New Jersey’s Tort Claims Act requires that any person who seeks to file a lawsuit against a public entity for tortious injury or damage to persons or property must put the responsible public entity on notice of that intention within ninety (90) days of the claim’s accrual. N.J.S.A. § 59:8-8. In “extraordinary circumstances,” claimants may seek leave of court to file a late notice within one year of the claim’s accrual.

In a case of first impression, the Connecticut Supreme Court in Lafferty, et al. v. Jones, et al. held that the imposition of sanctions based on certain comments made about the case by a defendant did not violate his first amendment right to free speech under the United States constitution.

In January of 2020, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in two consolidated cases to address the limits of specific personal jurisdiction. See Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial Dist. Ct., Case No. 19-368; see also Ford Motor Co. v. Bandemer, Case No. 19-369.

On August 5, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a precedential decision in the matter of M.S. v. Susquehanna Twp. Sch. Dist., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 24639 (3d Cir. 2020), clarifying the scope of a school district’s potential Title IX liability for sex-based harassment.

On August 13, 2020, New Jersey’s Appellate Division issued a published opinion in the matter of Repko v. Our Lady of Lourdes Med. Ctr., Inc., 2020 N.J. Super. LEXIS 204, where it held that a pleading could not be amended to “relate back” to the original date of filing, where the original complaint was defective to the point of lacking standing in the first place.

McGivney, Kluger, Clark & Intoccia’s Emily Weisslitz recently obtained a dismissal of a fraud action brought against the firm’s client, a professional organization, by a physician member of that organization. The member physician had been certified by the defendant professional organization for several years, including for more than a decade following his retirement from the active practice of medicine.

On July 29, 2020, New Jersey’s Supreme Court issued a decision in the matter of Sun Chemical Corp. v. Fike Corp., 2020 N.J. LEXIS 880 (2020). The decision was issued in response a question of law certified by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which was “whether a Consumer Fraud Act [“CFA”] claim [can] be based, in part or exclusively, on a claim that also might be actionable under the Products Liability Act.”

On June 30, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a decision in the matter of B.L. v. Mahanoy Area Sch. Dist., 964 F.3d 170 (3d Cir. 2020), ruling on a public school student’s federal Civil Rights Act claims arising out of a punishment that the student received for making a social media post over a weekend, away from school.

Recently in Borelli, Administratrix v. Renaldi, et al., the Connecticut Supreme Court held that the decision by a police officer to pursue a fleeing motor vehicle is discretionary in nature and thus entitled to governmental immunity pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. §52-557(a)(2).

With the future of qualified immunity around the nation up in the air, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a decision on July 9, 2020 addressing the limits of qualified immunity in a §1983 Civil Rights Act lawsuit, alleging excessive force stemming from a police-involved shooting.