Plaintiff, Disability Rights New Jersey (“DRNJ”) filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Newark, NJ against defendant Jennifer Velez in her capacity as Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services (“DHS”). DHS is a state agency that provides medical care and assistance programs for economically disadvantaged or disabled residents of New Jersey… read more →

Plaintiff husband and his wife were involved in divorce proceedings. In connection with those proceedings, plaintiff’s wife hired defendants, Innovative Investigations, Inc., and its principal Richard P. Leonard, to investigate plaintiff’s suspected infidelities. In the course of the investigation, defendant Leonard suggested to plaintiff’s wife that she place a GPS device on a family vehicle.. read more →

I am presently involved in a lawsuit in which my clients, three adult children of their now deceased father, are suing their deceased father’s former agent under a Power of Attorney. As alleged in the Verified Complaint filed by plaintiffs, the adult children claimed that the decedent either was incompetent when he signed the Power.. read more →

A New Jersey appeals court ruled that the state has no obligation to pay for transportation that would allow a 25-year-old man with autism to attend an adult day program because he is on the waiting list for a Medicaid waiver and a comparable program is available closer to his home. J.J. and L.J. on.. read more →

    Here are my selections for the top ten (10) New Jersey cases involving Special Needs Trusts / Disability Planning decided in 2009 and 2010. For those cases I previously blogged about,  a link to the blog post as well as the case is included below. (1)     Special Needs Trust Can Be Established Only.. read more →

In New Jersey, a document may be accepted for probate as a will in a number of ways. First, under the formal requirements of  N.J.S.A. 3B:3-2(a), a traditional will shall be (1) in writing; (2) signed by the testator or in the testator’s name by some other individual in the testator’s conscious presence and at.. read more →

New Jersey estate planning attorneys were again reminded of the conflict of interest minefield they face in In Re Buscavage, N.J. App. Div. No. A-6041-08AT3 (Aug. 25, 2010). Buscavage involved a challenge to trust amendments made by the decedent, Joseph Buscavage, in the final year of his life, which favored certain members of his family,.. read more →

Lawyers who regularly deal with elderly and disabled clients like I do often confront the issue of client capacity. Under our professional rules, a lawyer may represent a client who has less than full capacity, although a lawyer is precluded from representing a client who lacks capacity. The issue confronting the lawyer involves properly assessing.. read more →

Most of the cases discussed on this blog (and, I suspect, on most blogs which spotlight developments in the law) focus principally on decisions issued by the higher-level courts, the appellate courts and the supreme court of the state.  However, the majority of court decisions in New Jersey and other states are issued by trial.. read more →

Yesterday, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the attorney-client privilege protects e-mails between a would-be plaintiff / employee and her attorney discussing a possible employment lawsuit against the plaintiff’s employer that were transmitted on the corporate laptop of the employer. In Stengart v. Loving Care Agency, Inc., ___ N.J. ___ (Docket No. A-16-09, March.. read more →