NJ Laws Email Newsletter E372 Kenneth Vercammen, Attorney at Law August 2, 2011 Greetings Kenneth Vercammen, 1. Recent Cases: Police Should Not Destroy Initial Notes.State v. W.B. 205 NJ 588 (2011) After producing their final reports, law enforcement officers may not destroy contemporaneous notes of interviews and observations at the scene of a crime. Our criminal discovery rules provide for discovery of all statements of witnesses and police reports that are in the possession, custody and control of the prosecutor. Rule 3:13-3 encompasses the writings of any police officer under the prosecutors supervision as the chief law enforcement officer of the county. If a case is referred to the prosecutor following arrest by a police officer, or on a complaint by a police officer, local law enforcement is part of the prosecutors office for discovery purposes. Implementation of this retention and disclosure requirement is deferred for thirty days to allow prosecutors sufficient time to educate police officers. Thereafter, if an officers notes are lost or destroyed before trial, a defendant, upon request, may be entitled to an adverse inference charge molded to the facts of the case. 2. Officer Not Always Permitted to Render Opinion.State v. McLean205 NJ 438 (2011) The opinion offered by the officer does not meet the requirements needed to qualify it as a lay opinion and permitting the officer to testify about his opinion invaded the fact-finding province of the jury. This case involved a drug dealing conviction where a detective, after testifying about transactions seen from an unmarked car while on undercover drug surveillance, opined that they were narcotics sale. 3. Spanish Refusal Language Required Retroactively.State v Rodriquez-Alejo419 NJ Super. 33 (App. Div. 2011) The court affordedState v. Marquez, 202 N.J. 485 (2010) pipeline retroactivity and reversed a breathalyzer refusal conviction because the Spanish-speaking defendant was not read the standard form information in Spanish. Although not raised on appeal, the court also noted that the conviction was flawed pursuant to our recent holding inState v. Schmidt, 414 N.J. Super. 194 (App. Div.2010), because he was not read the second portion of the standard form when he did not produce a sufficient breath sample. 4. Thank you to the Friends and Clients who attended our Summer Happy Hour Friday, July 8. We plan on making this party down the shore an annual event. 5. Next Events: 7/23/11 Ocean Grove Biathlon 2M run, 300yd swim Ocean Grove fast short event. 9am 7/26/11 Tuesday night Raritan Valley Road Runners RVRR 5k summer series New Brunswick Buccleuch Park pizza 7/30/11 Sea Girt 1 mile swim 7/30/11Parker House Fun Run & Beer Party Sea Girt, NJ July 24, 20102 mile9:47 free beer 7/31/11 JFK Hospital Roosevelt Park 5k Edison 9am 8/13 Asbury Park 5k 8:30 jsrc.org [You can do both the Triathlon and 5k in same morning] 8/14/11 Ray Licata Long Branch Ocean Mile Swim 1 mile, & 100 yards for kids, 8amLong Branch NJ 8am 8/20 Bradley Beach 5k 8/28/11 CJRR Fall Classic 8:30 Cranford Elder Law, Estate Planning & Probate- New ideas to expand & excel your practice Saturday, August 6, 2011 at 2:00pm - 3:30pm Metro Toronto Convention Centre ABA Annual Meeting Toronto, Canada Learn from nationally recognized experts on using new techniques to improve service to Elder Law & Estate clients. Forms & briefs will be provided to all attendees. Tentative Speakers:Jay Foonberg, Esq. - Author of Best Sellers How to Start and Build a Law Practice and How to get and keep good clients, Beverly Hills, CA Kenneth A. Vercammen, Esq. - co-author Nuts & Bolts of Elder Law, Edison, NJ Parag Patel, Esq. Iselin, NJ Elder Law program Primary Sponsors: General Practice Section Co-sponsors: ABA Commission on Law & Aging, Health Law Section,YLD, Senior Lawyers Division, Real Probate & Trust Section, Tax Law Section Topics: Getting referrals from other professionals The aftermath of the Terry Schiavo case and Living Wills. Forms you can use Email newsletters How to manage telephone conversations with your clients Marketing with written fee agreements -Ethics and marketing without violating the Rules of Professional Conduct Elder Law may be the biggest practice area of your career. There are 50,000 baby boomers/ day turning 60 and soon to be on Social Security and will need legal advise. Elder Law is one of the biggest growth fields. [Contact Kenneth Vercammen, Esq. for program information 732-572-0500] Contact American Bar Associations ITS at 800-421-0459 for ABA meeting registration http://njwillsprobatelaw.com/toronto.htm Editorial Assistance provided by Katarina Kozakova. Ms. Kozakova will be entering her senior year at Rutgers University and is currently participating in Kenneth Vercammens summer internship program.