Legal Research

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Subscription required for online access:TICKET-FIX CHARGE DROPPED AGAINST JERSEY CITY JUDGE
"Irwin Rosen, one of four Jersey City judges accused of official misconduct in a 2007 ticket-fixing scandal, was exonerated Wednesday when the state requested that his charge be dismissed. "Our investigation found a dismissal was warranted," said David Wald, a spokesman for Attorney General Anne Milgram. Rosen, along with Chief Judge Wanda Molina, Judges Pauline Sica and Victor Sison and court administrator Virginia Pagan had been accused of dismissing or downgrading tickets for themselves, relatives, friends or colleagues. Rosen was charged with third-degree official misconduct for allegedly dismissing his own $42 parking ticket in 2004 and faced a possible five-year prison term."

SUIT TESTS IF LABOR FIRM'S ARBITRATION AGREEMENTS ARE IRONCLAD
"Littler Mendelson, a national firm whose Web site proclaims it as a source for "Employment and Labor Law Solutions Worldwide," is having its mettle tested in a suit by a former employee of its Newark office. The threshold question in Preston v. Littler Mendelson, L-2370-9, is whether the law firm can compel arbitration based on agreements it drafted that it says bind all employees suing the firm. Littler, which claims it fired Newark-office administrator Emma Preston for "performance-related issues" on June 9, has moved to stay the Union County suit and to compel arbitration. But Preston's lawyer cross-moved on Tuesday for a declaration that there is no enforceable arbitration agreement that applies to her claims. "

DEFENSE LAWYER'S REPRESENTATION OF STATE WITNESSES MAY LEAD TO RETRIAL
"A Camden County man sentenced to 11 years for insurance fraud and witness tampering may get a new trial because his lawyer also represented prosecution witnesses. Samuel Siligato was convicted in 2006 of making a false loss claim for a Winslow Township building that burned down and for getting witnesses to lie for him at an aborted trial on the fraud charges a year earlier. Louis Barbone, of Jacobs & Barbone in Atlantic City, was his lawyer at both trials but may also have represented three of the witnesses who turned against Siligato at the second trial. On Thursday, a state appeals court remanded the case for a hearing to sort out whether Barbone did indeed represent the witnesses; whether he had a conflict; and whether a new trial is required."

THE PAIN OF LASER HAIR REMOVAL HEADS TO COURT
"Plaintiffs and defense attorneys alike say medi-spas, where the beauty-conscious go to lose their unwanted facial hair, acne scars and fine lines, are a new litigation hot spot as patients increasingly sue over spa treatments gone wrong, and more suits are on the horizon as the number of medical spas has soared. Unlike day spas, which specialize in services such as massages, facials and body wraps for relaxation, medical spas offer cosmetic procedures that often involve the use of medical devices, such as lasers. While most states require that a doctor supervise such procedures, lawyers say it's not happening. Some states, including Florida, New York and Illinois, are considering legislation that would more tightly regulate medical spas."

JUSTICE STEVENS' SCANT CLERK HIRING FUELS TALK OF RETIREMENT
"The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Justice John Paul Stevens has hired only one law clerk for the term that begins in October 2010. Customarily by now, Stevens would have hired his full complement of four clerks for the term that begins a year hence. Though the timing of clerk hiring by justices has triggered speculation ? often inaccurate ? about retirement plans in the past, some who know or have clerked for Stevens say Wednesday's news is telling, and that it may well signal a current plan, subject to change, to retire next summer. By then Stevens will be 90, and he may have decided the timing is right for a variety of reasons. President Gerald Ford appointed him to the high court in 1975"

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