Legislative Updates

NJLRA Advocates for Legal Reform in the Legislature and in the Courts

The 213th New Jersey Legislature is now in session and NJLRA will be working with members to introduce new reform legislation.

On January 15, 2008, Governor Corzine pocket vetoed S-176, the wrongful death expansion which passed the Assembly and the Senate in lame duck session. To read NJLRA's statement on the governor's action click here.

NJLRA Supports A-3091/S-2116

A-3091 would cap the appeal bond that defendants must put up in order to appeal a monetary judgment at the trial level to the amount of the judgment or $50 million, whichever is less. This amount corresponds to NJ's current law capping appeal bonds for tobacco companies and would extend the cap to all defendants appealing a civil suit. This measure will bring fairness to tort law by making it easier for defendants to appeal rulings against them without forcing them to go out of business or set aside significant assets pending appeal.

Unlike plaintiffs, defendants who lose a case at the trial level often are required to post an appeal bond, or supersedeas bond, in order to appeal their case to an appellate court. This requirement can severely burden small businesses and professional firms with limited assets, requiring them to change their business operations or go out of business altogether. NJLRA believes that defendants, like plaintiffs, should have equal access to the appellate process in our courts without sacrificing their business.

A-3091 limits the size of appeal bond that a court can require while also protecting plaintiffs to ensure that judgments are paid. NJLRA supports its passage.

NJLRA Opposes A-1158/S-763

S-763 seeks to expand New Jersey’s wrongful death act to allow for unlimited recovery of emotional damage awards. This proposed expansion would take one of the already liberally interpreted wrongful death acts and create in New Jersey one of the most extreme acts in the nation. If enacted, New Jersey will be one of only eight states in the nation that allow unlimited grief damages in a wrongful death suit. The other seven are Arkansas, Vermont, Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, Ohio, and Oklahoma. Of these states, only Ohio and Illinois can be said to compare to New Jersey in population and economic activity.

Contrary to updating New Jersey’s law or bringing it in line with that of other states, this proposal further moves New Jersey outside of the mainstream of law in this country and creates a wrongful death act that permits compensation without any pecuniary basis, but based purely on the subjective sympathy of the jury.

If enacted, S-763 would abandon over a century of well-settled law and public policy that supported the idea that wrongful death damage awards should be directly related to an individual’s financial loss, not the unquantifiable and potentially unlimited emotional loss that understandably accompanies the loss of a family member.

New Jersey’s current Wrongful Death law provides fair and appropriate compensation to families that have suffered harm due to the wrongful death of a loved one. New Jersey courts are consistently generous when interpreting the current law, providing expansive views of the pecuniary damage requirement, especially true in cases involving children.

New Jersey’s current law is working – and working well – to ensure justice for its citizens.