State vs Sanchez In this appeal the Courts were requested to look at several issues. IN this blog we will discuss the right of the police to enter an accessible, open, unlocked, multi-story apartment building that has public hallways and stairs as well as private locked areas accessible only to the tenants. The court found…
State v. Kuropchack: On March 18, 2013 the New Jersey Appellate Division issued its opinion in this case. Defendant Julie Kuropchak was convicted in the Garfield Municipal Court of driving while intoxicated (DWI), N.J.S.A. 39:4-50. Following a trial de novo in the Law Division, she was again found guilty. As a third time offender, defendant was…
On April 17, 2013 I wrote about the recent US Supreme Court’s Opinion in McNeeley vs. Missouri where the Court found that dissipation of blood alcohol no longer constituted exigent circumstances as a means to bypass the ‘warrant requirement ‘ prior to a blood draw at a hospital. The Court further ruled that each case…
Case summary provided by New Jersey attorney, Jeffrey Hark Johnson vs. Redd, Trial Court Hudson County NJ, L-855-11 In this trial court decision, the court reviews the ability of a party to submit evidence to the jury regarding the pain and suffering value of life based on several different methods of calculations. The trial court…
Trompeter v. Hilton Parsippany, Dist. Ct. In a recent line of cases the New Jersey Appellate has reiterated and reaffirmed the plaintiff’s responsibility to produce evidence of the actual location where s/he has called and the nature of the defect that has called them to call. In addition, if expert testimony is required to prove the causal relationship between the defective condition, the defendant’s…
14-2-1787 State of New Jersey v Duran C. Keaton, App. Div. Unlawful Search and Seizure at Accident Scene In this Unpublished appeal the court ruled that the police are required, when there is no exigency, and the driver is able to obtain his identification materials, to allow a defendant to produce his driving credentials on his/her own without…
Arroyo v. Durling Realty, L.L.C., App. Div. (Sabatino, J.A.D.) (October 23, 2013) In this slip and fall case the plaintiff offered an expert report and testimony which the appellate court found the trial court properly rejected as a NET OPINION because the expert merely provided a personal opinion of criticisms of defendant’s maintenance and trash-removal…
36-2-1651 Osborn v. Walgreens Pharmacy, App. Div. (per curiam) (4 pp.) In this slip and fall case the Appellate court reiterated a very simple legal theory of all slip and fall cases. The plaintiff has to be able to identify, i.e. carry her burden of legally sustainable proof, of: (a) what caused her to fall, and (b) that defendant had actual…
14-2-1544 State v. Goldsmith After the defendant was convicted of possession of drugs and possession with intent to distribute he appealed his conviction arguing that the opinion testimony of two police “experts” that the transactions they ‘witnessed’ were drug purchases was clearly capable of producing an unjust result, such that there is a reasonable doubt as to whether the…
14-2-1653 State v. Granskie, App. Div. (Reisner, P.J.A.D.) (21 pp.) The use of expert testimony in this case by the defense stepped on the toes of the jury and overstepped his authority. The state of the law allows the defendant the right to present expert testimony concerning his heroin addiction and withdrawal symptoms and the potential impact of…