In merry olde England, the King was the law. Whatever he said went. Eventually, a second branch of law developed around litigants bringing petitions to the King’s Chancellor, seeking exceptions to the King’s laws. This second branch is the precursor of our present day Chancery Division of the New Jersey Superior Court. The Chancellor was considered to be the “keeper of the King’s conscience”.
Often, clients purchase property with intentions of building a house on a vacant lot, or converting a two family house into a three family house. In New Jersey, that process is heavily regulated and controlled by municipal government. If a property or structure does not meet the local zoning requirements, then the landowner must file an application for a variance from those requirements
Generally, the owner of a commercial property has the duty to maintain the adjoining sidewalks in a reasonably safe condition and may be liable to pedestrians using the sidewalks if those are unsafe. Two recent Appellate Division decisions considered whether the sites of two separate accidents were commercial properties for liability purposes.
If you intend to file for bankruptcy, you might be concerned about the effect it might have on your employment. Can your employer find out about your Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy? Can you be fired because of the bankruptcy? And can a possible employer deny you a job because you filed for bankruptcy?
In a personal injury case, the plaintiff is obligated to prove at trial that her injuries are causally related to the accident. Typically this is accomplished through the use of a medical expert who evaluates the plaintiff, provides an expert report and testifies at trial. This may also involve the use of diagnostic testing to support the expert’s conclusion.
There is a basic concept in the law of due process. Part of that is that a person or entity should not be sued in a State where it has not done business. In the old days, it might be sufficient to show that the defendant never stepped foot in New Jersey and therefore is not subject to the jurisdiction of the Courts. This question is governed by the principle of reasonableness and whether the defendant has minimum contacts sufficient that he should expect to be haled into court here.
The Appellate Division recently upheld a summary judgment ruling which I obtained in a foreclosure case. The defendant claimed that her signature on the mortgage was a forgery.
Her late husband was the borrower and the defendant signed the mortgage to secure her interest in the property. We were able to locate the notary who witnessed her signature and obtain a certification that he had examined the defendant’s passport. We actually had a copy of her passport photo from the loan closing.
In New Jersey, accident victims have two years from the date of their accident to file a lawsuit, under the applicable statute of limitations. Any case filed after that deadline is subject to dismissal.
