The Law Offices of Peter G. Aziz & Associates LLC.

06/05/2023

"How Do I Make This A Smoother Experience?"

Putting a house on the market can come with a lot of expectations.

Being prepared for buyers helps.

05/30/2023

This past week officially marks a decade since I hung up my own shingle. It has been an unbelievable 10 years and I cannot express how grateful I am to my wife, family, friends, clients, staff and colleagues. This profession can certainly wear you down, but I am truly blessed to be surrounded by such incredible people. People who genuinely make me feel privileged to be part of such a rewarding profession. I am looking forward to the next several decades of practicing law in this great State of New Jersey.

Thank you to for always having my back. Thank you for being such an amazing mentor. Thank you for handing my appearances while I was stuck 4 counties away in another Court house.

03/28/2023

When Bar Fights Lead To Charges

What should people know if a tense situation in a bar leads to assault charges?

2 types of charges to consider

02/08/2023

It was an absolute honor meeting Thierry Stern. Thank you for hosting such an amazing event.

02/03/2023

What Should I Ask A Seller To Disclose?

Foundation cracks aren't the only property defects that can affect a homeowner's financial and physical health.

4 items that should concern buyers.

01/07/2023

Merry Orthodox Christmas from my family to yours! 🎄

12/02/2022

How Can Families Handle Tragic Accidents?

When families lose a loved one to a crash, what can they do to stay afloat?

3 steps for survivors.

10/14/2022

BEC scams indiscriminately target all types of industries, but over the past few years they’ve found a new kind of victim: the eager homebuyer. Individuals and couples who, anxious to close on their dream home and inundated with paperwork and emails, think they’re transferring their down payment to a title company or a lawyer handling the closing process. Instead—by missing an impossibly subtle detail in an email, such as a spelling error or an extra character, indicating it’s a fake—they mistakenly wire tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to a hacker.

Source

09/30/2022

Did The Doctor Cause My Baby's Injury?

Learn about 5 birth injuries that can result from medical negligence.

Here's what new parents need to know.

09/25/2022

The courts of New Jersey and Texas are in a standoff over which state should retain jurisdiction of a case in which an Austin publisher of 3D printed fi****ms documents is challenging a New Jersey law.

New Jersey has the upper hand, and is refusing a request from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to return the case to Texas on grounds an Austin trial court erroneously severed and transferred jurisdiction.

On April 1, in Defense Distributed v. Andrew Bruck—then acting attorney general for New Jersey—the Fifth Circuit delivered a 37-page split decision, concluding the Austin court erroneously asserted Defense Distributed could not be disadvantaged by transfer because they “voluntarily” filed suit in New Jersey.

Source: New Jersey Law Journal

09/15/2022

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit agreed with a federal judge in New Jersey that courts—not arbitrators—are authorized to determine whether an arbitration agreement is superseded by a subsequent contract.

In 2013, a nondisclosure agreement containing an arbitration provision was signed to protect information that was “confidential and secret and in which each has a proprietary interest.” The second agreement, signed in 2017, was a software subscription service agreement that required any “action under or concerning” the contract to be litigated in New Jersey state or federal court.

“In sum, while we agree with the District Court that it, and not an arbitrator, was required to determine whether the parties’ first agreement was superseded by their second, we do not agree that the earlier agreement was in fact superseded,” Ambro concluded.

Judges Stephanos Bibas and Jane R. Roth agreed with Ambro’s reversal of the district court judgment enjoining the arbitration proceedings. The court vacated Xylem’s motion to stay the federal litigation while arbitration is pending and remanded for consideration of its opinion.

Source: NJ Law Journal

09/15/2022

“Every song you love, every memory you cherish, every moment that has moved you to holy tears has been given to you from the One who has been pursuing you from your first breath in order to win your heart.” - John Eldredge

09/02/2022

“Stay tuned!”

08/23/2022

The law­suit—ti­tled Trump v. United States Gov­ern­ment—al­leges the “de­ci­sion to raid Mar-a-Lago, a mere 90 days be­fore the 2022 midterm elec­tions, in­volved po­lit­i­cal cal­cu­la­tions aimed at di­min­ish­ing the lead­ing voice in the Re­pub­li­can party, Pres­i­dent Trump.”

A spe­cial mas­ter is a third party, usu­ally a re­tired judge, who re­views ev­i­dence to de­ter­mine whether it is pro­tected by at­tor­ney-client priv­i­lege, ex­ec­u­tive priv­i­lege, or sim­i­lar le­gal doc­trines.

Jus­tice De­part­ment of­fi­cials have said the Mar-a-Lago search was a nec­es­sary step that At­tor­ney Gen­eral Mer­rick Gar­land ap­proved af­ter weeks of de­lib­er­a­tion. Peo­ple fa­mil­iar with the Jus­tice De­part­ment’s ap­proach have said a pri­mary goal of the search was to en­sure the se­cu­rity of highly sen­si­tive na­tional-se­cu­rity doc­u­ments af­ter the Trump team didn’t re­lin­quish them and amid con­cerns that the se­cu­rity of the ma­te­r­ial at Mar-a-Lago had been put at risk.

Source:

07/28/2022

3 Things To Know Before Buying A Franchise

This is the necessary research to do before becoming a franchisee.

Learn how to evaluate the risks against the benefits.

07/23/2022

My little girl turns two today. 24 months, 730 days, 17,520 hours of pure, uninterrupted joy and blessings. Thank you to everyone who expressed their love for Ellie. Most of all, thank you for being the best mama Ellie could ask for.

07/20/2022

After obtaining default judgments for construction defects against a structural engineering firm and a construction inspection company, a New Jersey condominium association may directly sue those companies’ insurer, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled.

At the same time, the court reversed the Appellate Division’s holding that those claims need not be arbitrated in keeping with the policy terms.

Crystal Point Condominium Association Inc., a nonprofit corporation that manages a high-rise residential building located in Jersey City, sought to assert direct claims against the companies’ common insurer, according to the high court’s opinion.

Crystal Point, after discovering construction defects in the property, filed an action against two contractors it deemed to be responsible for the issues. The opinion didn’t reveal the nature of the issues.

Source: New Jersey Law Journal

07/14/2022

The fed­eral gov­ern­ment is giv­ing wid­ows and wid­ow­ers more time to deal with the in­tri­ca­cies of the es­tate tax af­ter a spouse dies.

When one spouse dies, their part­ner of­ten in­her­its all or part of the de­ceased per­son’s es­tate. The sur­viv­ing spouse re­ceives those funds tax-free. They can also carry over the de­ceased’s un­used es­tate tax ex­clu­sion if they file an es­tate tax re­turn and choose what the In­ter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice calls porta­bil­ity.

Un­der prior rules, a sur­viv­ing spouse had up to 15 months to file the re­turn. The ap­pli­ca­tion win­dow was ex­tended to two years in 2017 and then to five years last week be­cause so many fam­i­lies were miss­ing the dead­line.

Source:

06/26/2022

According to the June 20 opinion, the six appeals stemmed from cases before the Camden and Mercer County superior courts, where motions to dismiss with prejudice were granted for the failure to state a claim under Rule 4:6-2(e). The trial judges found that the insurance policies did not cover business losses resulting from executive orders issued by Gov. Phil Murphy because those losses did not constitute “direct physical loss or damage to” the covered property.

Judge Thomas W. Sumners, in his written opinion for the court, stated that, “the motion judges were correct in granting Rule 4:6-2(e) dismissals of plaintiffs’ complaints with prejudice for failure to state a claim on the basis that plaintiffs’ business losses were not related to any ‘direct physical loss of or damage to’ covered properties as required by the terms of their insurance policies.”

Source: New Jersey Law Journal

06/19/2022

It is my humble opinion that two simple words define being a father. Those words are “being present.” Doesn’t sound very complicated right? It’s not just the physical act of being present but the deliberate and intentional act of being involved in our children’s lives. I remember during the first 2 months of Ellie’s life Sandy and I were barely getting sleep (Sandy wasn’t sleeping at all actually). I also remember realizing that not a day went by where Sandy and I didn’t laugh or even cry from overwhelming joy. That’s what being present does. Sure it’s hard balancing work and home, that’s no secret. However, I can confidently say that Ellie and Sandy make it a lot easier than it should be.

Happy Father’s Day to all the present fathers out there.

06/12/2022

The New Jersey Supreme Court, finding that residential real estate transactions are distinct from absolute auctions, said imposing a three-day attorney review on auctions would “fundamentally interfere with the method by which buyers and sellers choose to conduct such sales.”

Attorney F. Bradford Batcha who argued the cause and authored the amicus brief for the New Jersey State Bar Association, stated, “The NJSBA is pleased that the Court carefully carved out a very narrow exception to the required 3-day attorney review clause, only for transactions which are absolute auctions, without reserve, held in person, where proper consumer protections are provided to the public in advance of the auction.”

Source: New Jersey Law Journal

05/31/2022

Home-price growth rose to a new record in March as ro­bust home-buy­ing de­mand out­weighed the lim­ited sup­ply of homes for sale.

The S&P Core­L­ogic Case-Shiller Na­tional Home Price In­dex, which mea­sures av­er­age home prices in ma­jor met­ropolitan ar­eas across the na­tion, rose 20.6% in the year that ended in March, up from a 20% an­nual rate the prior month. March marked the high­est an­nual rate of price growth since the in­dex be­gan in 1987.

Mort­gage rates have climbed swiftly since the start of the year. While higher mort­gage rates have started to re­duce buyer de­mand, home prices re­main sky high as de­mand con­tin­ues to ex­ceed sup­ply. Econ­o­mists say the rate of home-price growth is likely to slow by the end of the year.

Source:

05/27/2022

Rethinking Road Risks

Are there any safe driving practices I'm not currently using?

How crashes can be prevented.

04/25/2022

Can’t express how grateful I am to have people like this in my life.

04/08/2022

Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of.

-CHARLES RICHARDS

04/05/2022

A special welcome to our new associate ANTHONY BARSIMANTO ESQ.

Anthony Barsimanto is a deterrence lawyer with experience litigating cases involving a range of personal injury actions including premises liability and medical malpractice.
In addition to transaction experience, he also has extensive commercial litigation experience. Mr. Barsimanto received his law degree from Seton Hall University School of Law and has been practicing since 2011. Welcome to Aziz & Associates !

03/31/2022

Can I Avoid A Medical Error?

Patients can take certain measures to protect their well-being when seeking medical help.

3 steps to consider.

03/22/2022

Check out my Professional Spotlight in REAL ESTATE NJ. Link in bio!

03/20/2022

02/21/2022

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are asking questions about the safety and soundness of condos and co-op buildings after the Surfside, Fla., tower collapse. There is little agreement on how to answer them.
Following the June collapse that killed 98 people, the mortgage giants said they would stop buying loans connected to buildings with significant deferred maintenance or safety issues. They have provided lenders with new in-depth questionnaires—to be completed by condo management companies, associations or boards—about a building’s condition.

Problem is, the people responsible for filling out the form aren’t sure how to answer all the questions. Some, they say, simply aren’t applicable to their buildings. But lenders, which sell many of the mortgages they make to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, want detailed answers so they don’t get stuck holding too many loans on their books. 

The confusion is slowing down loan approvals and could make it more difficult for condo and co-op buyers to get mortgages, reducing access to affordable homes. The median sales price for previously owned condos and co-ops stood at $297,800 in January, lower than the median price of $357,100 for single-family homes, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Source:

02/10/2022

A defendant’s juvenile offenses can be factored into the decision to sentence an adult to life without parole under New Jersey’s Three Strikes Law, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Feb. 7.

In a 4-2 vote, the Supreme Court affirmed the Appellate Division’s decision in Samuel Ryan’s case.

Ryan was convicted of three armed robberies from 1990 to 1996. At the age of 16, he committed two armed robberies within two days and was convicted of two counts of first-degree robbery in 1990.

He was then separately indicted and convicted for two additional armed robberies in 1996; the court sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole under the state’s Three Strikes Law—predicated on his convictions in the 1990 robbery, his conviction for the first 1996 robbery and his conviction for the second 1996 robbery, according to the Supreme Court’s opinion.

Ryan, now 49, filed 11 postconviction release petitions between 1999 and 2012 to dispute his sentence. His 12th PCR petition in 2018 contained a motion to correct an illegal sentence based on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama and the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Zuber.

The panel said the law itself aims to limit recidivism in offenders and to protect the public from “the most dangerous persistent offenders.” It also noted that the statute only applies to dangerous and violent first-degree crimes that are not “grossly disproportionate” to the offense.
Source: NJ LAW JOURNAL

02/10/2022

Spring is almost here!

02/04/2022

Why Does This Guy's Opinion Matter?

Learn about the important role an affidavit of merit plays in a medical malpractice case.

Doctors must provide one critical document.

01/22/2022

Life itself

12/28/2021

ASSOCIATE POSITION: OUR FIRM IS LOOKING TO FILL AN ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY POSITION.

REQUIREMENTS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. MIN 2 YEARS experience.
2. Must be knowledgeable in real estate transactions, drafting pleadings, motions and discovery, and litigation support.
3. Must be licensed to practice law in New Jersey.

Please email your CV, Cover letter, writing sample and salary requirements to [email protected].

If you do not include all 4 items you will not be considered for the position.

12/26/2021

WHAT SHOULD I DO BEFORE BUYING A HOME? Check out the Link in my bio.

12/25/2021

Merry Christmas!

12/10/2021

Today was a special day and I couldn’t do it without