LAW OFFICES OF GEOFFREY D. MUELLER, LLC

In an indictment filed July 29, 2013, Federal Prosecutors allege that reality television "stars" Joe and Teresa Giudice stole $4,641,612 from various banks by using "fake W-2 forms and fake pay stubs" as well as "false and fraudulent tax returns” to obtain loans they had neither the ability nor intention to repay.

The 39 Count indictment can be found on PACER (link below).

"Plaintiff Citizens United Reciprocal Exchange (CURE) appeals from the Chancery Division order dismissing its July 22, 2013 complaint to disqualify an attorney and a law firm pursuant to Rules of Professional Conduct (RPCs) 1.9 and 1.10. We affirm.

"The record reveals that CURE identifies itself as "an insurance reciprocal exchange authorized by the Department of Banking and Insurance to exchange reciprocal contracts among its members." It employed defendant Allison T. Kurtz as an in-house attorney from October 19, 2009 to December 5, 2011. Kurtz's primary assignment involved representing CURE against personal injury protection (PIP) claims, mainly at arbitration. During her tenure, Kurtz worked on approximately 180 PIP matters, including several filed by defendant Massood & Bronsnick, L.L.C. ("the law firm" or "the firm")."

[Thereafter, Ms. Kurtz left CURE to become an associate at the firm and CURE filed an Order to Show Cause to disqualify her and the firm from any cases involving CURE.]

"Based upon our review of the record and the applicable legal principles, we agree with the trial court that CURE failed to demonstrate that Kurtz had acquired confidential information that could be used against CURE in future PIP matters. CURE's allegations that Kurtz had knowledge of business practices, litigation strategies, and staff personalities were too imprecise and general to meet the high standard required by Trupos to show that the matters were substantially related. The judge appropriately noted that the general knowledge Kurtz had received did not become confidential factual information when used in the relatively informal, routine, fact-specific PIP proceedings. We conclude that CURE did not meet its burden of proving that a violation of RPC 1.9 occurred."

CURE v. Kurtz, A-4330-11 - full decision below...

Per The New Jersey Law Journal:

"In Michigan, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Gregg denied a request by Nathan Maas to discharge four private loans totaling $47,000 that he took out as a student at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School between 2000 and 2002.

"Judge Karen Caldwell of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee on July 11 affirmed a bankruptcy court’s denial of Robert Bentley Marlow’s attempt to discharge $250,000 in student loan debt. Marlow graduated from the Samford University Cumberland School of Law in 2009 and obtained a master’s degree in social and political philosophy from the University of Tennessee a year later, according to the opinion."

***

"Both Maas and Marlow represented themselves.

"By contrast, in May the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the discharge of $53,000 in educational loans taken out by a 1997 graduate of Willamette University College of Law who was earning just $40,000 a year as a juvenile probation officer.

"And last June, a federal bankruptcy judge in Maryland discharged $340,000 in student loans, some of which was acquired by the plaintiff’s short stint at the University of Baltimore School of Law during the early 1990s. Her Asperger’s syndrome made repaying the loans an undue hardship, the judge ruled."

Full article after the jump...

Per The New Jersey Law Journal:

"Hells Angels have taken the New Jersey State Police to court, alleging troopers engage in a "campaign" to "intimidate, harass, threaten and deprive" them of their constitutional rights.

"The suit, Caruana v. Kilmurray, 13-4286, now in federal court in Trenton, claims the state police violated members’ equal protection, free speech and due process rights and the New Jersey Civil Rights Act.

"Plaintiff[s'] attorney Dean Maglione of Newark says that when the motorcycle club holds a gathering, troopers station themselves outside and take pictures, which is intimidating.

"The suit also cites a number of incidents of alleged harassment.

"One is a July 2011 police stop on the New Jersey Turnpike in South Brunswick, when nine members, accompanied by two prospects, were wearing their easily identifiable emblem, a winged skull. The group was detained for about 45 minutes and frisked and two of them were handcuffed for 25 minutes. Nine were issued tickets for speeding and failure to keep right."

***

"[This] is the second suit in which motorcycle club members accuse state police of constitutional violations. In Coles v. Carlini, 10-6132, members of the Pagans and Tribe motorcycle clubs sued over a traffic stop in which troopers allegedly ordered them to cover up their emblem. That suit, filed in federal court in Camden in 2010, is in discovery."

More after the jump...

Per the New Jersey Law Journal:

"The Newark Police Department has agreed to require that its officers document every stop-and-frisk interaction and to report statistics monthly on the Web.

"The new policy, implemented Monday by General Order No. 2013-03, is meant to "affirm the commitment in continuing to develop positive relations between the Newark Police Department and the community."

"It resulted from months of meetings among Mayor Cory Booker, police director Samuel DeMaio and the American Civil Liberties Union's New Jersey chapter.

"Udi Ofer, the ACLU-NJ executive director, says Newark police already had been documenting much of the pertinent information but not compiling, summarizing and publishing it.

"The data is to be maintained by the Office of Professional Standards (OPS), which monitors officers' behavior, conducts audits and investigates complaints, officer firearm discharges, vehicle pursuits and corruption allegations."

***

"The state Attorney General's Office has not issued stop-and-frisk policies or guidelines but routinely trains law enforcement on constitutional law as applied to stop-and-frisk practices, says spokesman Peter Aseltine. He declines comment on Newark's directive.

"Darren Gelber, president of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey, says the department "should be applauded in any effort to increase transparency," calling the directive a "tremendous step forward."

"The collected data might be useful to attorneys trying to claim pretext or discrimination in their clients' matters, says Gelber, a partner at Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer in Woodbridge.

"He compares the directive with the state police's 1999 consent decree with federal authorities barring troopers from basing traffic stops on racial or ethnic profiling.

"Newark police director Samuel DeMaio did not respond to an interview request by press time Tuesday."

Full article after the jump...

[WARNING: SOME IMAGES NOT SUITABLE FOR EVERYONE.]

Per The New York Times:

"Jeff Bauman stared straight ahead, his eyes wary and unconvinced, as his doctor told him the next procedure would be easy and painless. He sat in his wheelchair at Boston Medical Center, and Dr. Jeffrey Kalish, his primary surgeon, explained how a resident would remove the sutures from his legs.

"Most of Bauman’s legs were gone. He had been waiting for his girlfriend near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15 when the first of two bombs detonated and blew them off. An iconic sporting event had turned into a scene of chilling devastation, and a photograph of Bauman in the aftermath, his legs gruesomely lost, later became a searing symbol of the attacks.

"The day of the bombings, Bauman had had an emergency, through-knee amputation that lasted about two hours. A surgeon had sifted through layers of skin, tissue and muscle, preserving what was healthy, cutting what was dirty and sick. He had removed what was left of Bauman’s lower legs at the knee joints.

"Two days later, Kalish had performed a formal amputation at about four inches above the knee. He had measured the legs and cut each layer — skin, tissue, muscle and bone — farther up in the thigh, like a staircase. Then he washed out the legs for 10 minutes, tucked the muscle, and stitched the tissue."

***

"The day after the concert, Bauman was going to try to walk. His prosthetic legs had been made, and now the thigh sockets needed to be fitted. At his last appointment at United Prosthetics, he had taken a few short steps, but Martino had held his hips. Martino wanted him to walk on his own now, to see how everything felt and if any more adjustments were necessary.

"Bauman’s mother, his girlfriend and a few others gathered to watch in a hallway narrow enough that Bauman could reach the railings on each wall. He was in his wheelchair as he rolled the gel liners onto his thighs. He held his left thigh and squeezed it.

"Martino held the legs in place as Bauman pulled on the sockets. He strapped the liners to the sockets as Martino adjusted the knees and set the feet on the ground, with their black, size-10 ½ sneakers. Bauman scooted forward in the chair, grabbed the railings and pushed himself up. Martino had a hold of him and helped him stand all the way up."

Full article after the jump...