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LOWENSTEIN SETTLES SUIT CHARGING IT CAUSED RAVIN SARASOHN'S DEMISE
"A confidential settlement on Monday ended the trial of a suit charging that the firm of Ravin Sarasohn was destroyed by overagressive recruitment of its high-billing bankruptcy practice group by Lowenstein Sandler, New Jersey's second-largest firm. The nine-year-old case settled after three weeks of trial that was marked by dueling testimony over whether Lowenstein's wooing of 31 lawyers and support staff in 2000 was aided by high-pressure tactics on associates and use of confidential financial data from Ravin Sarasohn. Legal rulings and a verdict in the case would have helped define how far firms can go to woo lateral attorneys in an age when lawyers move firm to firm at a dizzying rate."

ISRA RESCISSION CLAUSE INVOKED TO VOID FORECLOSURE SALE
"In a novel interpretation, a Gloucester County judge has voided a tax sale foreclosure by dint of a section of the Industrial Site Recovery Act that allows voiding a transfer if the property is contaminated and the transferor has ignored its statutory obligation to remediate it. Superior Court Judge James Rafferty's order returns ownership of the mercury-tainted Franklin Township site, now used as a day-care center, to defunct thermometer maker Accutherm, which closed its factory doors in 1993. Rafferty found rescission appropriate both under common law and because Franklin Township failed to meet its notice requirements under ISRA, N.J.S.A. 13:1K-6 et seq."

SENATE OKs THREE NEW JUDGES, TENURE FOR FIVE AND SECOND TERM FOR PROSECUTOR
The state Senate on Monday confirmed the appointments of three new Superior Court judges, all Democrats. They are Mount Holly solo Kenneth Domzalski, Hackettstown solo Kimarie Rahill and Donald Kessler of Schwartz, Simon, Edelstein, Celso & Kessler in Morristown. Chief Justice Stuart Rabner immediately signed orders assigning Domzalski to the Burlington County Family Part, Rahill to the Warren County Family Part, and Kessler to the Essex County Family Part. Also on Monday, the Senate confirmed reappointment of five sitting judges and a second term for Salem County Prosecutor John Lenahan, and the Senate Judiciary Committee recommended tenure for 11 other judges.

DOLLAR-A-DAY POLICIES DON'T CONVEY RIGHT TO ACCESS UNSATISFIED CLAIM FUND
"Limited personal injury benefits under 'dollar-a-day' auto policies are not the equivalent of no benefits, such as would allow recourse to the Unsatisfied Claim and Judgment Fund, the state Supreme Court held Monday. The justices, in Sanders v. Langemeier, A-49, overturned two lower rulings that would have allowed recovery from the UCJF by an uninsured passenger in a car whose driver was covered by a special policy that limits PIP benefits to emergency medical treatment right after the accident, excluding subsequent, non-emergency care. Nothing in the UCJF legislation 'suggests an intention to create an additional avenue of relief for an individual covered by a special policy to seek non-emergency care through the UCJF,' the Court said."

BILL WOULD OFFER IMMUNITY TO UNDERAGE DRINKERS WHO DIAL 9-1-1
"The state Senate Law, Public Safety and Veterans' Affairs Committee on Monday recommended passage of a bill that would grant immunity to underage drinkers if they call for medical assistance for another underage person who has consumed alcoholic beverages. The bill, S-2748, known as "9-1-1: Lifeline Legislation," would also provide immunity to an underage person who receives such medical assistance. The immunity would apply to N.J.S.A. 2C:33-15, which makes it a disorderly persons offense for a person younger than the legal age to purchase alcoholic beverages to knowingly possess or consume any alcoholic beverage on public property, and to municipal ordinances authorized by N.J.S.A. 40:48-1.2."

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