News & Views & History

12/28/21: Order to Show Cause/Complaint (Docket Mon C 209-21) filed in Chancery against neighbors for TRO and permanent injunction due to continued operation of the rejected outdoor multi contractors yard.
The court is simply being asked to allow the sheriff to give the neighbors 30 days per ordinance to abate the violations or lien any equipment not removed by then. TRO obtained 12/29/21. Order to Show Cause for contempt of TRO filed 4/20/22. After several weeks consideration by assignment judge Thornton, entire matter transferred 5/24/22 to Law Div. (Docket Mon L 1422-22) for inclusion of Long Branch. Unlike the previous matter (Mon L-4039-11) seeking enforcement of the zoning ordinance, where the court found Long Branch had discretion to do whatever it wants or not with regard to issuing permits or enforcement, affirmed/rubber stamped on appeal, the transfer means Long Branch is responsible for enforcing the law. Was the previous dismissal a mistake or just discrimination? Non-uniform application of the laws is part of the problem in these courts which get way with it under guise of non-precedential, unpublished opinions not binding on other courts. On 7/7/22 an Amended Complaint joining Long Branch was filed and added a count for civil rights violations as Long Branch found to be enforcing its ordinances elsewhere in town.
The hearing date for this emergent filed matter is now 9/16/22 at 1:30 PM, most likely via zoom. 

Find case here after adding docket numbers: https://portal.njcourts.gov/webcivilcj/CIVILCaseJacketWeb/pages/publicAccessDisclaimer.faces

Corruption is costly.
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2016/sdn1605.pdf

NJ is one of the most corrupt states by one study based on corruption convictions, reporter reviews, and lack of stringent laws:
pdf2. howcorruptisyourstateall50ranked

(The media and courts usually protect each other so the reporters answers “not at all common” and “slightly common” as to judicial branch corruption are not surprising. The major NJ media is historically against elections and any changes and touts the “independence” of the politically appointed partisan judiciary, lol but even they were lamenting all the judicial vacancies in 2013/14 under the current system as the Governor and legislators used judicial nominations as bargaining chips to get their way in unrelated matters. (See also “Home/Government/Local Media Silent”)     

Christie Sweeney deal on NJ Supreme Court leaves one lasting vacancy.pdf

See also: soprano state
and more recently: New York, Andrew Cuomo, and the six most corrupt states in the country.pdf

Here’s a prime reason and smoking gun for NJ’s corruption:
IN NJ, LAW ENFORCEMENT IS APPOINTED AND CONTROLLED BY POLITICIANS AND NOT ELECTED.
COMMON SENSE DICTATES THAT SEPARATING THE TWO WILL RESULT IN CLEAN GOVERNMENT.
NJ Judges, Attorney General and Prosecutors are all political appointees who mostly ignore political corruption of Governments like Long Branch and automatically  accord  good faith to acts or omissions of municipalities under the Tort Claims Act when the record shows otherwise, and nevertheless are allowed to continue to serve. The failure to criminally prosecute official misconduct, also encourages municipal corruption.  This scheme, was enshrined into the state Constitution by mostly lawyer legislators to maintain their power, influence and control over the Courts and evade prosecution – not necessarily for the public good. 50 of the 81 delegates elected statewide to the 1947 Constitutional Convention which unified the courts under an unelected supreme court, were such:
https://njsbf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Constitutionally-NJ.pdf
As a result, the Governor nominates politically connected judges with the approval of the local state senator (“senatorial courtesy”), an unwritten rule. The Senate judiciary committee which confirms and can remove judges, is controlled by attorneys who make their living practicing law before these same judges while also “consulting” for municipal clients as do many of the senators who thereafter confirm the nomination out of committee. Many in the general assembly do the same as is currently the case in Long Branch where the assembly speaker’s law firm is representing Long Branch in a new matter with the author. (See Home page/Government). As corrupt as NY is, at least the AG is elected and did investigate and act against Gov. Cuomo. 

The Attorney General and County Prosecutors should be elected and thereby separated from the politicians who now put them in office. Their focus should be proactive enforcement of the law including corruption. They will be answerable directly to the public for their performance. They are now able to refuse to enforce laws while collecting fat paychecks based on “prosecutorial discretion”, however the public should also have the discretion to remove them thru non-partisan elections.

While unelected attorney generals and prosecutors are loath to prosecute corruption, much of the corruption is also covered up by unelected, unaccountable judges who purposefully fail/refuse to do their job and provide substantive adjudication and who look the other way and protect obviously corrupt municipalities, like Long Branch.  This occurs because the politically appointed judges can now serve until 72  after the 7 years initial term (public concerns are routinely ignored during renominations) and the US Supreme Court hears only 80 or so cases a year. This and the lack of any media coverage  certainly is no credible deterrent to the courts doing anything they want – which they apparently do . (See “A Case(s) for Elections & Reform) Furthermore, even though the US Supreme court may have already decided an issue and made law, the State courts may still purposely misinterpret or ignore this which necessitates further appeals on these issues already decided as law. It also occurs due to a lack of credible deterrent and supervision by the State itself. The director of the administrative office of the courts (AOC) who supervises the courts, and members of AOC’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct (ACJC), which investigates & disciplines judges, are chosen and supervised by the unelected chief justice of the supreme court. The committee consists of 9 members, including 2 judges, at least 3 practicing attorneys, and 0-4 private, well connected citizens. There’s only one investigator on the ACJC for the entire court system!
This explains why judges are seldom if ever removed for purposefully failing to do their job and provide substantive adjudication. 

The outcome of this is evident, i.e. in the well documented cases contained herein. (A Case(s) for Elections & Reform) Though Fairtrial mainly documents and focuses on its founder’s denial of due process as to property rights, it is reasonable to expect that without accountability in the courts, the same result is occurring in other civil, criminal and family matters. Fairtrial will fill this accountability gap and lead the call for elections and asks the public to call state legislators and demand this reform and question any media which does not report on and discuss this issue. In accordance with the US Constitution, Fairtrial has a petition for elections on this website for which it asks the public to register their support. 

There’s no public Initiative & Referendum either in the Constitution as in other progressive states at the time and none since – the 1947 delegates thanked the public who sent them there by preventing elections  for law enforcement and anything on a ballot that would bypass  them and their conflicts of interest, preventing amendments to the Constitution and legal and other reforms without them.
https://ballotpedia.org/History_of_initiative_and_referendum_in_the_U.S.
Regrettably, the local media which has business before the courts and may be controlled by the courts for fear of its reporters being jailed for contempt for violation of gag orders or divulging of sources, is silent when it comes to questioning or criticizing the court and opposes reform. (See also Home/Government /Local Media Silent”) You’ll never see media in this state criticize a NJ court’s decision no matter how obviously corrupt or against the public interest. It is common for spouses of one to work for the other. Obvious public corruption doesn’t get exposed until arrests or adjudication years later in court. The court maintains a media relations division which no doubt takes the reporters out to lunch and spins and tells them how they should not report. The “free press” in NJ opposes elections but no doubt will advocate for corrupting, unlimited spending on attack ads in any elections. The public and Fairtrial must not let that happen. Any media that is still independent thinking and open to the idea of non-partisan, phased in elections beginning with the chief justice and attorney general is to be commended and will be mentioned on this site. Why the chief justice and attorney general?
The chief justice is responsible for administration of the court and its policies in addition to hearing cases.
Chief justice Rabner showed his true colors when his supreme court denied certiorari and let stand his appellate court’s rubber stamped affirmation of judge Perri’s lower court ruling that reversed the standard of review and also found that “Long Branch/public entities have total discretion and immunity in regards to issuing permits and enforcement”. No, we do not live in China, Cuba or Russia and public entities and employees must be acting in good faith under the Tort Claims Act to get immunity for their acts or omissions. The suppression of evidence in the neighbor’s nuisance trial, inaudible sidebars and allowing defendants to tell jury everything was all legal though 20 notice of violations existed, made a mockery of justice. Isn’t that enough of a reason?
The attorney general is responsible for prosecuting official misconduct and also oversees local prosecutors.
If they did their job, you would see a lot less corruption attempted and these matters would not end up in civil court. The author previously called the AG, mentioned Long Branch and never got a call back despite a program which sought tips. Perhaps this is because Governor Murphy was led all around NJ by Congressman Frank Pallone when first running and came to the swearing in of Frank’s brother current mayor John Pallone and councilwoman Celli who lives across from ground zero and lets her neighborhood go to hell? See “Home/Government/New Mayor&Council Elected”     

39 States have some type of election for trial court judges and 34 states for supreme court and appellate judges, though some may involve undue politicking, campaign financing and influence by lawyers and special interest groups. Several states such as Arizona already have non-partisan elections at all judicial levels. See: brennan center judicial selection map and https://ballotpedia.org/State_judicial_elections,_2016
NJ is one of the few states where both the nomination (by the Governor) and confirmation (senate judiciary committee) is purely political and where the party of the nominee is of primary importance.
Similar to ethics reform, New Jersey now has an opportunity to lead in this area and Fairtrial offers a general plan for this (see  “Model for Elections” and “Petition for Elections & Reforms”) and seeks public support by email, letters or fax to state legislators. Any legislator who fails to get behind this idea will be deemed to be benefiting by the current system and part of the problem and will be disclosed on this website. FairtrialNJ’s “Model for Elections” with phased in, limited direct elections meets all the goals of  two important studies on the subject;
https://www.uakron.edu/dotAsset/727687.pdf
http://www.heritage.org/courts/report/defense-the-elected-judiciary
Retention elections used in some states such as California are disfavored as participation is low due to the public not knowing if the politically appointed successor will be even worse. 

Lets make NJ the best and cleanest – get politics out of law enforcement. It won’t cost a dime.                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Sign the petition calling for non-partisan elections with spending limits & other reforms, contact your legislators, remove the obstructive ones, join the caravan for justice, donate and follow us on twitter

Let’s first preface by asking who should know better about needed reforms than one who has used and experienced it over 24 years in several matters as a litigant. The “Case(s) for Elections & Reform” tab on the menu bar contains actual cases. 

• Currently the court prefaces its non precedential appellate decisions/opinions with the statement “NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION”  and “This opinion shall not “constitute precedent or be binding upon any court.” and  “Although it is posted on the internet, this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited. R.1:36-3.” This results in non-uniform application of the law and intentional discrimination. Why should a judge in one matter, i.e. find “public entities have total discretion and immunity in regards to issuing permits and enforcement” which the appellate div. and supreme court refused to negate and the next court able to find a duty to enforce the same ordinances? (See Case #6 “Case(s) for Elections & Reforms” and “Home/Judiciary-Law/Appeal Filed & Denied” and “Home/Government/New Mayor&Council Elected”  This is a despicable practice.
• The assigning of appeals should be random and recorded, much like the lottery, to instill confidence and preserve impartiality. See Case 5, Appeal A 000999-10T4 under “A Case(s) for Elections & Reforms” as example of how it should not be done.
• Proper monitoring of municipal cases by the Municipal Division manager in each county, and removal of municipal judges from a matter who are knowingly in conflict or use the court to conduct four year charades as documented in Case 6 herein should occur. Cases which may require statutory injunctive relief shall also be referred to the County Prosecutor to investigate why this has not occurred and whether due to official misconduct. Municipal Appeals shall be assigned to elected judges in the county vicinages.
• The Chief Justice should consider having 7 non-partisan elected citizens on a second panel of its Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct which may include non-practicing attorneys in good standing and law professors. This panel should consider complaints for bias, discrimination, purposeful refusal to apply laws which are shown or should be known to judges, and looking the other way from obvious corruption and which now result in unnecessary appeals. Should the panel so find, the case should be remanded for re-hearing by, preferably, another judge, depending whether bias is found, and the offending judge set down for the next upcoming election. The judiciary claims “Independence, Integrity, Fairness and Quality Service” on its website but is it really fair if one has to take an appeal due to an obviously biased judge?
• Judges who transfer matters should be required to provide a short statement of reasons when requested by a litigant. The court did that in Case #2 but refuses to do so in Case #7. Courts should be consistent.

8/95: FairtrialNJ’s founder leases then closes on a dilapidated industrial property in Long Branch due to pending foreclosure. His business had just moved in 2 months prior. He obtains zoning approval and is determined to improve the site for his and future tenant businesses. He begins to get his first taste of the courts as well as the legendary Long Branch corruption soon thereafter. See “Case(s) for Elections & Reform”
6/01: The FairtrialNJ domain is registered and blogging commences.
9/03/02: Fairtrial(NJ) acquires its first van to display its website at Superior Court Vicinages and thruout the State and to aid in its public education efforts.
1/12/10: A day that will live in infamy. FairtrialNJ’s original van is torched.
3/25/17: FairtrialNJ updates its petition and website and commences statewide distribution of its message.
2022: New offices nearing completion which will house FairtrialNJ across from ground zero of Long Branch corruption.