Journey To Justice Blog - February 6, 2012

Consumer and Civil Rights Trial Lawyer Discusses Bill Prohibiting Attorney's Fees for 'Technical Violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act'
Posted by: Kevin Costello
February 1, 2012
Topic: Consumer and Civil Rights Trial Lawyer Discusses Bill Prohibiting Attorney's Fees for 'Technical Violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act'

The First Nail in the Coffin of Consumer Rights

Assembly Bill 1444, prefiled for introduction for the 2012 session of the New Jersey State Legislature, and sponsored by Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, seeks to amend New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act to prohibit attorney's fees to plaintiffs who prove what the bill terms as merely "technical violations" of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.

As everyone knows, I am an unapologetic champion of individual...

Employment and Civil Rights Attorney Applauds Appointment of First Openly Gay Supreme Court Justice in New Jersey Bruce Harris
Posted by: Kevin Costello
January 25, 2012
Topic: Employment and Civil Rights Attorney Applauds Appointment of First Openly Gay Supreme Court Justice in New Jersey Bruce Harris

I've been blogging a lot lately because it feels like a lot has been happening.

I'm not a GLBT person but you can see my other blog entries where I discuss how important it is that we bring justice to all minorities, including sexual minorities. I have no time for religious and political bigots who think that GLBT people are still the only minority whom it's "okay," politically, to openly hate, berate and deny due to "accepted cultural" (read: religious)...

Employment Rights Lawyer Discusses Arkansas' Supreme Court Declaration of Punitive Damages 'Cap' as Unconstitutional
Posted by: Kevin Costello
January 11, 2012
Topic: Employment Rights Lawyer Discusses Arkansas' Supreme Court Declaration of Punitive Damages 'Cap' as Unconstitutional

Corporations Don't Behave Unless You Make Them Behave

A case that began about negligent contamination of rice with genetically modified rice ended with the Supreme Court of the State of Arkansas striking down a legislative "Cap," or limit, on punitive damages. The Cap was approved by the State's General Assembly in 2003, but the Court's Ruling concluded that this Cap conflicted with the State's Constitutional Prohibition on the General Assembly's ability to...

New Jersey Civil and Employment Rights Lawyer Discusses Penn State and Syracuse Sex Abuse Cases
Posted by: Kevin Costello
December 20, 2011
Topic: New Jersey Civil and Employment Rights Lawyer Discusses Penn State and Syracuse Sex Abuse Cases

Sexual Abuse Isn't About Sex, But About Abuse of Power

As an employment and civil rights lawyer doing a great deal of work to act against both work and school sexual and other forms of bias-based harassment, I'm often asked, sometimes smugly (and thus always in those situations ignorantly), whether or not sexual harassment is "really" as bad as "they" (whoever the hell that is) make it out to be. I'm paraphrasing here, but you can anticipate the...

New Jersey Civil Rights Attorney Opposes Christie's Remarks About Judge Feinberg
Posted by: Kevin Costello
October 27, 2011
Topic: New Jersey Civil Rights Attorney Opposes Christie's Remarks About Judge Feinberg

If You Can't Say Something Nice...

I'm a big boy now. I understand that politics is a dirty business no matter whom you happen to support. I get that our governor has his fans, fans who will excuse anything he does because, having drank the kool-aid, there's nothing he could do that isn't "necessary." This is an extreme view. I'm hoping that even those extremists might have a place in their view for reason. Take a deep breath and consider: Governor Christie...

New Jersey Harassment Lawyer Discusses Gay Bashing Statements by Public School Teacher
Posted by: Kevin Costello
October 14, 2011
Topic: New Jersey Harassment Lawyer Discusses Gay Bashing Statements by Public School Teacher

Shocking Gay Bashing Statements by New Jersey Public School Teacher

Frankly, the title really doesn't convey just how unbelievable - and yet sadly believable - this breaking story seems to be.

From what we can glean, and as reported in the October 13, 2011 Star Ledger, Union Township school officials are now "investigating" homophobic gay bashing in certain Facebook postings by a public school teacher at Union High School.

The comments seem to be in...

The Occupation of New York City - What it Means to You
Posted by: Kevin Costello
October 7, 2011
Topic: The Occupation of New York City - What it Means to You

I had an opportunity to watch the news regarding the protest movement called "The Occupation of New York City."  I also had an opportunity to review the "declaration" document of the group that sponsored the protest, the "Direct Democracy Occupation Group."

As I watched the coverage, and as I read the declaration, I recalled my younger years first as a high school student, then as a college student, as a law student, as a young lawyer, and finally,...

The End of 'Don't Ask Don't Tell'
Posted by: Kevin Costello
September 21, 2011
Topic: The End of 'Don't Ask Don't Tell'

I'm 45-years-old now. When I was a kid, my father told me "Don't judge a man unless you've walked a mile in his moccasins." It was an old saying when I was young, but in our haste to continue our national "evolution", we've developed some blind spots when it comes to folk wisdom. Young generations, and even members of my generation, have forgotten or never learned the wisdom of that phrase (and of others). We feel impatient or irritated with what we now consider to be...

Justice is About More Than Money
Posted by: Kevin Costello
September 9, 2011
Topic: Justice is About More Than Money

The attacks on the jury system in this country continue in their vociferousness, their ignorance, their dishonesty and their hatred. The corporate, banking, insurance and financial worlds have all combined, since the early 1980's, in a very clever campaign to besmirch our justice system and undermine the intellectual neutrality of juries.

As a trial lawyer, I know this instinctively every time I pick a jury. Every jury selection for the past ten or even fifteen years has involved...

Proud to be an American
Posted by: Kevin Costello
August 3, 2011
Topic: Proud to be an American

As a Civil Rights Lawyer sworn by oath to defend the interests of those least capable of defending themselves, I often find cause to define the phrase "Proud to be an American" in a way different from the typical.  This is understandable; by dint of professional training for three years in law school and twenty years since, I have been given to understand the phrase in the context of a rich and not always entirely consistent legal history of the United States to which most...