Category: Blog

P.L. 2011, c.63, approved May 4, 2011, requires Board of Public Utilities orders to be in writing and to be posted on the BPU’s Internet website. The law is to be effective 30 days after enactment. [Follow-up: As of June 2nd, 2011, BPU orders from 2007 forward, current to mid-May, are available on the BPU website at http://www.state.nj.us/bpu/agenda/orders/.]

The “State Legislative Impact” and “State Regulatory Impact” features from Potomac Publishing Company are no longer found on LexisNexis. Pending bills amending a statutory section can be found by Shepardizing that section. Proposed amendments of an N.J.A.C. section can be found by searching the N.J.Register for the section number.

The bill A2722 was reported by a Senate committee on March 10th; the committee amended the bill to allow a party to a case to request a written opinion.

As noted in this Monday’s New Jersey Law Journal, 203 N.J.L.J. 590 (Feb.28,2011),
Assembly Bill 2722 [First Reprint] (passed by the Assembly Feb.17th) would authorize certain Administrative Law Judge decisions to be made either without written opinion or with a decision in the form of a checklist, and would also eliminate the power of several agencies to reject or modify ALJ decisions.

The bill would amend N.J.S.A. 52:14B-10 by adding this language in subsection (c):

Unless the head of the agency requests that the recommended report and decision be filed in writing, the recommended report and decision of the administrative law judge may be filed orally in such appropriate cases as prescribed by the director and if a transcript has been requested pursuant to subsection (e) of section 9 of P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-9). ….
An administrative law judge may file a recommended report and decision in the form of a checklist in such appropriate cases and formats as prescribed by the director after consultation with each State agency.

and would add a subsection (g) reading in part as follows:

With regard to contested cases commenced with an agency on or after the effective date of … this bill…. that are described in this subsection1, the report and decision of the administrative law judge shall be the final decision upon the filing thereof with the agency, notwithstanding any other provision of State law to the contrary. In such contested cases, the head of the agency shall not have the opportunity to reject or modify the administrative law judge’s report and decision pursuant to subsection (c) of this section and the final decision by the administrative law judge shall comply with the requirements of and shall be given the same effect as a final decision of the head of the agency … This subsection shall apply to any contested case from:

• (1) the Department of Community Affairs;
• (2) the Department of Education;
• (3) the Department of Environmental Protection;
• (4) the Department of Children and Families involving placement on a child abuse registry;
• (5) the Department of Health and Senior Services involving placement on the nurse aid registry, and penalty matters;
• (6) the Division of Family Development in the Department of Human Services;
• (7) the Division of Civil Rights in the Department of Law and Public Safety;
• (8) the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission;
• (9) the Civil Service Commission; and
• (10) the Department of Law and Public Safety under P.L.1988, c.123 (C.56:12-29 et seq.).[the lemon law]

Under another added subsection (f), other agency heads could order that in certain categories of cases the ALJ decision would be final.

The Automated Case Management System — Public Access (ACMS-PA) containing docket information on New Jersey civil cases, is now available via the Judiciary’s web site. On the Judiciary homepage, follow the link “Civil Case Public Access” under “Online Resources” in the left-hand menu. Internet Explorer must be used.

The new design for the N.J. Judiciary home page is up for preview at
http://wwwtest.judiciary.state.nj.us/.

The New Jersey State library has made available in PDF
the New Jersey Register from volume 1 (1969) through
Volume 27 Number 12 (June 1995). The URL is
http://www.njstatelib.org/Research_Guides/Law/new_jersey_register.php.

Information Today, Inc. reports –

LexisNexis learned from WestlawNext’s debacle of a launch—which involved telling everyone at the same time about a new product while only providing it to one market and leaving other markets to the guesswork; not telling anyone the price; and generally irritating librarians by promoting the new but often unavailable service directly to patrons. Instead, LexisNexis is doing it differently. LexisNexis is targeting the solo and microfirms with the new Lexis Advance. These lawyers have to drum up their own clients and manage their own taxes, payroll, calendars, billing, staffing, and training—all in addition to practicing law! They don’t have librarians or law libraries. They work in small offices, home offices, or shared suites.

For the full story, Click Here.

MetaLib is a library portal providing end users with an easy and personalized interface which can search simultaneously for information in a variety of electronic resources, such as catalogs, reference databases, digital repositories or subject-based Web gateways. These information resources are collectively referred to as databases. Once you have found the information in which you are interested, MetaLib provides you with the tools to save it for future reference in your E-shelf, save it to disk or send it by email.

For the full story in Resource Shelf, Click Here.

As of early afternoon today, users attempting to access the New Jersey Register on the free public access site http://www.lexisnexis.com/njoal were being blocked by a request to sign in with ID and password.