LAW OFFICES OF GEOFFREY D. MUELLER, LLC

Per The New Jersey Law Journal:

"New Jersey's Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to review a case that could broadly impact drunken driving defendants charged with refusing a breath test.

"The justices granted certification in State v. O'Driscoll, A-7-12, in which a refusal conviction was overturned because the police provided outdated information that understated the penalty for not providing a breath sample."

More after the jump...

Per The New Jersey Law Journal:

"We present in these pages the results of the Law Journal's sixth cyclical survey of New Jersey lawyers about the quality of judging on the state's trial bench. It is designed to assess the comparative strengths and weaknesses of judges, their demeanor and their potential biases, all of which are highly relevant to customers of the courts.

"As in the past, the survey is a private enterprise, conducted without the cooperation or endorsement of the judiciary.

"The survey is meant to provide a forum that pools the practicing bar's collective knowledge about judges' performance. Lawyers share that lore informally all the time, but not in any quantifiable way that can be readily referenced and distributed. This survey supplies that medium.

"Most of the survey is good news. Statewide, lawyers gave 350 judges an average overall score of 8.04 on a 1-to-10 scale, which is a solid "B." The deviations from that average were for the most part gradual.

"Ratings necessarily produce comparisons, which unavoidably produce bests and worsts in the rankings of judges. But that is not the point of the survey. Rather, we intend it as useful feedback for judges from the lawyers who appear before them, and as useful information for a lawyerfacing a judge for the first time.

"We hope the survey will be read and used in that spirit."

Ronald J. Fleury
Editor in Chief

In a precedential ruling, the Third Circuit has held in Anderson v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, No. 11-1704 that "under the doctrine of collateral estoppel, [the Defendant's] previous guilty plea for criminal tax evasion conclusively establishe[s] the taxability to him of specific income that his criminal indictment charged him with failing to report."

Per the New Jersey Law Journal:

"Walter Anderson was charged in 2005 with failing to pay more than $200 million in taxes on nearly $500 million in unreported income from offshore businesses for the 1995 to 1999 tax years.

"Nearly all the income was from Gold & Appel Transport, a British Virgin Islands entity Anderson formed in 1992 to which he transferred his interests in three companies: Mid-Atlantic Telecom, Esprit Telecom and Telco Communications Group. The government alleged that he hid his ownership of Gold & Appel and another company also set up to evade taxes.

"Facing up to 80 years in prison, Anderson pleaded guilty on Sept. 8, 2006, to failing to report a combined $365 million in income for 1998 and 1999, the years with the highest amounts. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.

"Charges for the other three years were dismissed, but the Internal Revenue Service then went after him for unpaid taxes for all five years. In July 2007, it issued a notice of a $184 million tax deficiency as well as a fraud penalty of $138 million."

Links to full decision and NJLJ article after the jump...

Two similar, but worthwhile articles from USA Today:

"Financial abuse of the elderly is getting worse, and most seniors don't know how to seek reliable financial help.

"There is no silver bullet that will end the financial abuse of America's seniors," says Don Blandin, president and CEO of the non-profit Investor Protection Trust (IPT), which released a survey Wednesday about elder exploitation. IPT conducted the survey after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requested more information about the problem. The experts IPT surveyed said the most common type of abuse is when family members steal or divert funds or property. The next biggest problems are caregiver theft and financial scams perpetrated by strangers."

More after the jump...

Per The New Jersey Law Journal:

"A state appeals court has upheld the scientific reliability of the Stalker Dual SL, a widely used radar device for detecting speeders.

"The court, in State v. Vankerkooy, A-1423-10, held Wednesday that a prosecution expert, flown in from Texas to testify at the municipal court hearing on reliability, provided sufficient ground to rely on the radar readings.

"The per curiam, unpublished opinion appears to be the first by an appeals court concerning the device."

***

"In 2010, an appeals court held that speed readings from another Stalker device, the Lidar, which uses laser technology, could not be used until the machine's accuracy was established through independent testing. That case, State v. Green, 417 N.J. Super. 190 (App. Div. 2010), was precedential."

Full article and link to per curiam decision follow...

Underlying case discussed here:

https://www.gdm-law.com/index.php?page=blog&from=36&display=46

Per The New Jersey Law Journal:

In Freeman v. Fischer, Plaintiffs challenged a New Jersey law prohibiting out of state wineries from shipping to New Jersey residents, while permitting local wineries to do so. Eventually, the U.S. District Court "stayed the proceedings while the Legislature moved a bill that ultimately was enacted last January. The law now permits direct-shipping licensure of wineries that produce less than 250,000 gallons a year, ship only their own products, ship no more than 12 cases a year per person for personal use and comply with tax-collection requirements.

"In light of the legislation, the parties entered into a joint consent order Hayden signed last April 24, which resolved all issues except for fees. The plaintiff lawyers sought $822,089 in total fees and costs."

More after the jump...