LAW OFFICES OF GEOFFREY D. MUELLER, LLC

Per The New Jersey Law Journal:

"In an apparent ruling of first impression in New Jersey, a car dealer has been held in violation of the Consumer Fraud Act for selling a used car without disclosing its prior use as a loaner.

"Morris County Superior Court Judge Rosemary Ramsay denied defense motions for remittitur and a new trial on Dec. 14 in the case, in which a jury awarded the plaintiff treble damages of $30,000.

"Ramsay also awarded $45,202 in fees and expenses, in Montgomery v. Millenium Auto Group, MRS-L-2839-10.

"Research by both sides found that no other court has ruled on whether the statute applies to the failure to disclose that a used car was a loaner, plaintiff lawyer Herbert Korn says."

More after the jump...

Per The New York Law Journal:

"A jury in Orange County is scheduled to consider whether a pious man who believes God answered his prayers by curing his partner of cancer can recover damages against a church for the leg he lost after the crucifix where he made his devotions toppled on him.

"Jury selection is slated for Jan. 22 before Orange County Supreme Court Justice Elaine Slobod (See Profile) in a case that hinges on whether employees at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church of Newburgh were involved in securing a 530-pound crucifix to its base when the statue was erected more than 20 years ago.

"Slobod already has held that the church did not have actual or constructive notice of any defect, that the defect was not discoverable through a visual inspection and that "the law does not impose a duty on a church to climb on every monument or statue to determine whether it would fall."

Read Justice Slobod's ruling.

"However, she let the case go forward on the allegation that the church was negligent in securing the cross to the base.

"Jimenez v. St. Patrick's, 2439/2011, involves David Jimenez, 44, a deliveryman for a bakery and pizzeria who often prayed fervently at the cross outside the church for his partner when she was stricken with cancer.

"Jimenez's lawyer, Kevin Kitson of White Plains, described Jimenez and Delia Solis as devout Catholics who immigrated to the United States from Mexico nearly 20 years ago. They have three children, ages 3, 13 and 17, Kitson said.

"After Solis recovered, a grateful Jimenez continued to pray at the statue several times a week. But Jimenez noticed that the statue, which had been subjected to the elements for at least two decades, was getting grimy, and he obtained permission from the parish priest to clean it on May 30, 2010.

"Jimenez was standing on the base and moving from one side to the other to clean Jesus' face while holding the cross-beam of the crucifix for support. Suddenly, the structure tumbled forward, knocking Jimenez to the ground, falling on him and crushing his left leg. The leg was amputated below the knee.

"Jimenez sued the church for more than $5 million. The church raised more than $7,000 for his family, but Kitson said that Solis has been unable to work since the accident."


More after the jump...

Per The New Jersey Law Journal:

"In an opinion that could serve as a primer for enhanced legal fees in OPRA cases, Bergen County's top judge has awarded $10,445 to a requester of records from the county prosecutor's office.

"The opinion clarified a host of issues, including what makes someone a prevailing party under the Open Public Records Act, when contingency fee enhancements are available and which attorney activities can be counted in calculating the lodestar.

"Assignment Judge Peter Doyne held in Rivera v. Office of the County Prosecutor, No. BER-L-4310-12, that a records requester can recover fees at his or her lawyer's regular hourly rate for time spent traveling to and from court, preparing the fee application, typing up documents and reviewing prior cases handled by the same lawyer."

From the Decision:

"Regarding the fourth factor, RPC § 1.5(a) instructs courts to evaluate the fee amount involved and the ultimate results obtained by the client.  First, Luers’ hourly rate multiplied by the time expended yields a reasonable lodestar of $8,057.50.  See supra, p. 11, for the discussion of the reasonableness of the fee charged by Luers for his services.  Second, plaintiff reports that 95% of the originally redacted names had been released in non-redacted form as a result of the court’s ruling.  In NJDPM, the court awarded plaintiff’s counsel 100% of the proposed attorney’s fee despite obtaining only 70% of the documents requested.  185 N.J. at 147.  Defendants argue that limited success calls for a limited reward.  Rivera sought disclosure of names to determine whether minorities were subject to greater uses of force than the remainder of the population.  The disclosed UFRs do not provide a race or alienage of the individual involved, only a name.  No scientific evidence exists regarding the connection between a last name and race.  As defendants’ counsel noted, there is nothing to say Whoopi Goldberg is Jewish or Senator Kevin O’Toole is Irish.  The defendants’ argument that the lodestar should be reduced to reflect a limited success is not persuasive.  Luers’ “95% success rate” thus justifies the award of a reasonable fee."

More after the jump...

Per the New Jersey Law Journal & Litigation Daily:

"Settled cases may soon outnumber unresolved cases in the long litigation over health insurers' use of an industry database that set "usual, customary, and reasonable" (UCR) rates for medical procedures. On Dec. 7, Aetna Inc. agreed to a $120 million settlement of claims that its reliance on the database led to low reimbursements for procedures performed by out-of-network providers. The Aetna agreement joins previous UCR settlements by UnitedHealth Group Incorporated and Health Net Inc. UCR suits are still pending against Cigna Corporation and WellPoint Inc."

***

"The UCR litigation started in 2000, when the American Medical Association and state medical assocations filed a class action suit against UnitedHealth, which ran the Ingenix database that set UCR rates for medical procedures for the entire health insurance industry. Insurers used the Ingenix rates to determine how much they would reimburse for procedures performed by providers not in their network. The AMA and its co-plaintiffs maintained that Ingenix set rates too low, resulting in lower reimbursements by insurers to out-of-network providers, which in turn meant that subscribers had to make higher payments to their providers. (The AMA has kept track of the Ingenix litigation at this online litigation center.)

"Andrew Cuomo, then the attorney general of New York, got involved in the Ingenix controversy in 2007 when his office filed suit against UnitedHealth and the insurers that used Ingenix. According to an investigation by the AG's office, Ingenix data understated the true market rates of medical care by up to 28 percent. The insurers reached a settlement with Cuomo in 2009 in which they agreed to stop using Ingenix and turn over the task of setting UCR rates to a new database, called FAIR Health, to be run by academic institutions instead of the industry.

"In addition to attacking Ingenix, the AMA and the other provider and patient plaintiffs also sued the insurers that relied on the database. Health Net was the first insurer to settle, in 2008, for $225 million. UnitedHealth settled next, in 2009, for $350 million. After legal fees and administrative costs, $250 million was distributed, primarily to providers, Hufford said."

More after the jump...

UPDATE: https://www.gdm-law.com/index.php?page=news&display=104

Support the 2013 Polar Bear Plunge on Saturday, February 23, 2013 in Seaside Heights, NJ.  Funds raised through the Polar Bear Plunge help to advance the goal of Special Olympics New Jersey, to provide free year-round training and competition in 24 Olympic-type sports to more than 22,000 children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

You can make an online donation of $25, $50, $100 or ANY amount by visiting the donation page listed below!

The Special Olympics, as well as the more than 22,000 children and adults sincerely thank you for your generosity.

PER SPECIAL OLYMPICS NEW JERSEY:

Special Olympics New Jersey is working to address the challenges presented by Hurricane Sandy and to finalize some modifications that will ensure another extraordinary Polar Bear Plunge - celebrating 20 years this February 23! Over the next few weeks we will complete the event logistics and provide information through this website. To All Plungers – Lock down the date, continue to recruit team members and everyone should keep on securing those pledges to ensure that 2013 will be the greatest Plunge in 20 years! Thank you for your patience and your commitment to supporting the athletes of Special Olympics New Jersey.

DECEMBER 19, 2012 - UPDATE HERE: https://www.gdm-law.com/?page=blog&display=160

Per The National Law Journal:

"Twenty years after they first became available to the public, the papers of the late Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell Jr. are still yielding interesting nuggets. And you don't necessarily have to travel to Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Va. to find them.

"The Powell archives at Washington and Lee, more than other repositories of justices' papers, is putting material online – including more than 200 complete case files from Powell's tenure on the court from 1972 to 1987."

...

"The latest: a typewritten list from 1987 of all of Powell's opinions – annotated by Powell himself, who put check marks next to his favorite, or most important, cases. Yes, the affirmative action landmark Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, was checked, as was First National Bank v. Bellotti, a key 1978 campaign finance decision. But not Booth v. Maryland, one of Powell's final rulings, on the admissibility of victim impact statements in capital cases."

...

"But Powell may not have anticipated that the single most requested document from his files would be the so-called "Powell memorandum" – the 1971 memo he wrote to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, urging the business community to aggressively defend the free enterprise system in the courts and in the public from the "broad attack" then being made by liberals in academia and the media."

More after the jump...

Per The Star Ledger:

"New Jersey's first medical marijuana dispensary opened this morning.

"Greenleaf Compassion Center at 395 Bloomfield Avenue, in the heart of Montclair's commercial district, admitted its first patient at 10 a.m. All initial visits to Greenleaf will be done by appointment only, board member and co-founder Joe Stevens said.

"About 20 registered patients from across the state were scheduled to meet with the dispensary staff to discuss their medical history and decide which of the dispensary's three strains of marijuana would work best. Patients will be limited to purchase a half-ounce of pot at their initial consultation, in order to insure the limited supply reaches all patients, Stevens said."

More after the jump...

Per CNN:

"Mortgage giants, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, announced Monday that they will suspend all bank repossessions beginning December 17 and December 19, respectively, and will not resume the evictions until January 2, 2013.

"The holidays are a chance to be with loved ones and we want to relieve some stress at this time of year," said Terry Edwards, Executive Vice President of Credit Portfolio Management, Fannie Mae.

"According to Freddie spokesman, Brad German, the suspension will not affect other pre- or post-foreclosure activities, such as the filing notices of default or the scheduling of auction sales. Fannie said in its press release that other legal and administrative proceedings will also continue."

...

"Bank of America said it will also put a halt to foreclosure evictions both for loans it owns and for those it services for investors during the holiday period. Other large mortgage lenders, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citibank have postponed foreclosures during the holidays in the past, but have yet to say whether they will do so again this year.

"The reprieve is separate from the previously announced moratoriums on foreclosure evictions for victims of Superstorm Sandy in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, which will continue through February."

Per The Consumerist:

"For three years in a row, we’ve been able to take note of a particularly heartwarming act by two of the country’s largest mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Just as the two companies did in 2011 and 2010, they announced today that they’ll suspend all bank repossessions of homes starting Dec. 19 and Dec. 17, respectively, running through January 2, 2013. That simple act could help homeowners ensure they can stay home for the holidays."

More after the jump...