Legal Research

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COMPUTER WITH ATTORNEY-CLIENT E-MAILS IS FAIR GAME FOR POLICE PROBE, JUDGE RULES
"When a plaintiff's computer that contained e-mail exchanges with his lawyer ended up in the defendant's hands, the lawyer figured he could get the federal judge in the case to order the machine's return. But U.S. District Judge Stanley Chesler in Newark denied a request for a temporary restraining order that would have required the Hackensack Police Department to return Officer Anthony Ferraioli's home computer that it obtained during an internal affairs investigation. The department says it has evidence that someone using the computer posed as a Hackensack police lieutenant in a posting on an nj.com forum."

RESTAURATEURS HIT WITH DAMAGES FOR INFILTRATING WAITERS' MYSPACE FORUM
"A federal jury in Newark on Tuesday found that restaurant managers who surreptiously monitoring employees' postings in a MySpace gripe group violated state and federal laws that protect privacy of Web communications. Two servers at Houston's in Hackensack, fired for criticizing their bosses in those postings, were awarded a total of $3,400 in back pay and $13,600 in punitive damages in the case. The jury found that the restaurant violated the Federal Stored Communications Act and the New Jersey Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act, and that management acted maliciously."

CHIROPRACTOR WHOSE PRACTICE FELL OFF DUE TO FALSE DRUG CHARGES WINS $2M
"A Lakewood chiropractor who alleged he was the target of a bizarre romantic vendetta has won $2 million in compensatory and punitive damages for bad publicity that led to a loss of business. According to the suit, Carlo Amato was menaced by his ex-girlfriend's new paramour, who filed false police reports and even planted illegal drugs under his car. Amato was arrested and embroiled in court proceedings and had to appear before state regulators to protect his license. Though he cleared himself, the affair drew intense local publicity ? the kind that doesn't attract patients. The jury award in the malicious prosecution suit included $1.5 million for lost business income and $400,000 in punitive damages."

THOUGH NAMED AS BENEFICIARY, SPOUSE'S RIGHT TO LIFE INSURANCE ENDS AT DIVORCE
"The divorced wife of a police officer who committed suicide can't collect on his life insurance, even though she was the named beneficiary, a state appeals court says. The judges ruled on Tuesday that since life insurance policies, like wills, allow the insured to change the beneficiary at any time, a former spouse has no vested right in the proceeds absent a contractual agreement to the contrary. Hence, life insurance benefits to a spouse ? like testamentary bequests ? should be considered revoked by divorce or annulment, the court said in Hadfield v. Lillo, A-5140-07."

SAUL EWING PUTS ITS ALTERNATIVE FEES IN WRITING ON THE WEB
"Moving beyond all the talk of alternative fee arrangements, Saul Ewing has put its fixed-fee programs in writing ? on its Web site at least. The firm launched this week its 'cost certainty commitment' with two different programs in which either a fixed fee or a cost per-attorney, per-day will be used on specific types of matters the firm identified as lending themselves to such arrangements. New matters have already started to come in as a result, and the goal is to have practice group leaders come up with other areas in which the program could be expanded."