Legal Research

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PENN. FIRM SUED OVER SHAKY GRASP OF N.J. LIEN LAW
"A federal judge says a bank can sue a Pennsylvania law firm over its less-than-savvy understanding of New Jersey real estate law, which caused part of a $3 million loss from a bad loan. The malpractice suit charge that Riley, Riper, Hollin & Colagreco botched instructions by RBC Bank of Houston to make sure a construction loan in Egg Harbor Township was secured by a first lien. When the builder went bankrupt, the bank learned that its lien was subordinate to the vendee liens of the purchasers of the builder's homes. Besides allowing the bank to continue its attempt to recoup $750,000 from the firm, U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson denied motions to have the case transferred to federal court in Philadelphia or to apply Pennsylvania law."

GOVERNOR NAMES ROSELAND LAWYER TO WATERFRONT COMMISSION
"Gov. Jon Corzine has appointed Barry Evenchick, a former prosecutor, to be New Jersey's commissioner on the Waterfront and Airport Commission of New York Harbor, an agency recently slammed in an official report for incompetence and lax oversight. Evenchick, a partner at Roseland's Walder, Hayden & Brogan, replaces Michael Madonna, a retired Oakland police officer and former president of the state's largest police union, who retired just when Corzine was about to fire him for alleged indiscretions. Corzine named Evenchick as a recess appointment since the Senate, which must give its consent, will not return until the fall."

N.J. ASSISTANT PROSECUTOR FIGHTS DUI CHARGE IN PA.
"An assistant Warren County prosecutor accused of drunken driving near his Pennsylvania home is challenging the accuracy of the blood-alcohol test used to charge him. Kevin Brotzman attracted police attention by driving over a fire hose on June 14 in Bethlehem, Pa.. Police say his blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.08, the threshold for drunken driving in Pennsylvania. But his lawyer George Heitczman says the margin of error in blood-alcohol tests might place him below that level".

LITIGATORS FEELING A DIFFERENT KIND OF RECESSION
"A year ago, as the economy began its freefall, corporate law departments were preparing for an all-out assault by plaintiffs. Some 34 percent of in-house counsel polled said they expected to face more suits against their companies in the coming 12 months ? a significantly higher percentage than in the previous year. But the early numbers for this recession are showing something quite different: that litigation isn't really all that more active than it was before the recession. The Hildebrandt International Peer Monitor Economic Index ? a quarterly survey of legal market conditions ? reported in May that demand for litigation services among Am Law 200 firms was flat during the first quarter of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008. And BTI Consulting Group found that legal departments at Fortune 1000 companies on average spent 1 percent less on litigation during the first half of 2009 compared with one year earlier."

HIGH COURT AGE BIAS RULING DECIDES JUROR RIGHTS CASE
"A recent Supreme Court ruling requiring age-discrimination plaintiffs to prove that they would not have been fired "but for" their age may have long coattails, judging by a decision on Friday in federal court in Washington, D.C. LilliAnn Williams-Jackson sued the city under the D.C. Jury Systems Improvement Act, alleging she was transferred out of her job as an elementary school guidance counselor because her principal was angry that she had served for four months on a jury. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer found that the language used in the D.C. act closely mirrored that of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the law which was the subject of Gross v. FBL Financial Services, said the same standard should apply, requiring Williams-Jackson to prove that she would not have been transferred but for her jury service."