Case Summaries

New Jersey Case Summaries

John M. Burke

• Mr. Burke currently represents more than twenty-five homeowners in actions against their mortgage brokers and several national banks. The homeowners claim that they received mortgages with different terms than what their mortgage brokers promised them. The mortgages gave the homeowners a reduced interest rate (a Teaser Rate) for approximately one month. After that, their interest rate increased significantly. These mortgages are sometimes called "Option ARMs". However, the mortgage brokers were either promising that the teaser rate was good for a longer period of time, or they were not revealing the true terms of the mortgages to the borrowers. Mr. Burke is pursuing many of these cases in federal court under the federal Truth-in-Lending Act, and New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act among other laws.
  
 
• In 2004, Mr. Burke obtained a $750,000. settlement for a nineteen year old woman who was significantly injured in a motor vehicle accident. The young lady sustained herniated discs in her lower back and in her neck and a jaw (TMJ) injury. She underwent back surgery about two years after the accident as well as arthrscopic surgery for her jaw. The insurance carrier for the other driver contested that her injuries were related to the motor vehicle accident. The case arbitrated for $750,000. which was paid by the insurance company in a settlement of this case. 
  
 
• In 2007, Mr. Burke settled a case for a young woman who sustained a broken ankle in a motor vehicle accident when another driver cut her off and she then collided into a guardrail. The other driver fled the scene of the accident. The young woman was taken to the hospital and underwent surgery inserting screws and a plate in her ankle. After the accident, she developed a pulmonary embolism which required her to take blood thinner medication for about eighteen months. The driver of the vehicle that cut her off denied that he was involved in the accident and claimed that he was not even in the area at the time. His insurance company offered no money to settle the case before the lawsuit was filed and stood by their insured's version of the accident. Our firm's investigator tracked down a witness who saw the accident. Mr. Burke conducted a videotaped deposition of that witness thus preserving it for trial. Mr. Burke then also obtained EZ-Pass records of the Defendant driver which showed that he was in the area around the time of the accident. The case settled a week before trial for $247,500. which was paid by the insurance company which initially offered no money.
  
 
• Mr. Burke won a jury verdict for an injured client, a United States Marshall Officer, who fell and sustained a non-displaced broken ankle while transporting a prisoner through a parking lot. We contended that the owner negligently maintained the area of the parking lot where Plaintiff fell on an uneven surface. The Plaintiff wore a cast for six weeks and then underwent physical therapy to help rehabilitate the ankle. Evidence was presented at trial that the injuries impeded the Plaintiff from engaging in rigorous physical activity, including special training in the United States Army Reserve. Plaintiff returned to work as a United States Marshall though without restriction. A jury awarded him $48,400.
  
 
• In 2006 Mr. Burke obtained a $350,000. recovery for his client who was injured in a motor vehicle accident. The woman, thirty years old at the time, alleged she sustained herniated discs in her neck. She required a neck surgery (fusion) about two years after the accident. The insurance carrier's attorney aggressively contested that the injuries were caused by the accident, or that a surgery was necessary. The case was submitted to a retired Superior Court Judge for a binding arbitration which resulted in the above recovery.

Jon Koles

During his 25 years of practicing law in the New Jersey/New York/Metropolitan area, Jonathan Koles has successfully represented more than a thousand Hudson County residents in consumer fraud class action arising from health club membership contracts. He has successfully represented people who were arrested by the police without probable cause.

He has successfully represented people who, as children, were abused by priests. He has successfully represented family members whose loved ones were killed due to the wrongdoing of another through their wongful death claims, both for the pain and suffering of their deceased loved ones and for the financial consequences to the surviors. He has successfully represented hundreds of people who were injured by the wrongdoing of the drivers of all sorts of motor vehicles like cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles and motor scooters, by medical mistakes, defective products, deficient maintenance of real property like sidewalks.

In 2007, Mr. Bustillo obtained a $1.5 million settlement for an elderly man battling a life threatening illness, who had been abandoned by his wealthy son. After a bitter family feud, the wealthy son stopped providing financial support to his father. The father, who had no independent means of support, was facing eviction from his home. Upon reviewing the father's financial documents, Mr. Bustillo found that in 2003, the son had signed a document stating that a portion of the son's money belonged to the father. Recognizing that the son had executed a "deed of gift," Mr. Bustillo filed an emergency petition with the court and convinced the court to order the son to support the father financially pending the outcome of litigation. Thanks to the emergency relief obtained from the court, the father was able to move back into his apartment and assert his rights to a portion of the money. After a court battle that lasted almost two years, the father walked away with just over $1.5 million in time payments.

In 2005, Mr. Bustillo obtained lifetime worker's compensation disability benefits for a truck driver who had injured himself on the job. The truck driver was loading a pick up truck on top of a vehicle transport rig when his foot slipped off the brake, causing the pick up truck to fall off of the rig with the driver inside. The driver fractured two vertebrae and underwent three back surgeries. Due to the driver's age, 42, the worker's compensation insurance carrier resisted paying full disability benefits, arguing that the driver could be retrained. By obtaining expert reports from numerous doctors and vocational specialists, Mr. Bustillo was able to demonstrate that the truck driver would not be able to work again. As a result, the driver has been receiving benefits starting at $300 per week and increasing to $629 per week for the rest of his life.

In 2004, Mr. Bustillo obtained a $465,000 settlement for his client, who had been stabbed in a parking lot outside of a dance club by another patron. The issue in the case was whether the dance club had provided adequate security. Through meticulous investigation, Mr. Bustillo learned that the dance club had been cited numerous times by the municipality's ABC Board for violent disturbances occurring inside the club and in the parking lot. One year before the stabbing, the dance club had entered into an agreement with the municipality in order to have its liquor license restored. The agreement required the dance club to maintain four security guards in the parking lot. The club owners maintained that they had complied with the agreement. Mr. Bustillo was able to locate one of the bouncers who was working on the night of the stabbing. The bouncer testified that the club owners never placed security personnel in the parking lot, a fact that contributed directly to the stabbing.

In 2003, Mr. Bustillo successfully defended a client in federal court accused by United States Customs Agents of illegally structuring electronic money transfers in order to avoid IRS reporting requirements. The client was facing a minimum of 30 months in federal prison without parole. The client was a taxi cab driver who had been under federal surveillance. Unable to obtain evidence against the cab driver by legal means, the federal agents stopped him without probable cause and searched him, finding what the agents said were instructions on how to structure the illegal money transfers. The agents also searched the cab driver's home and found $40,000 in cash, as well as more alleged wiring instructions and transfer receipts. After a full evidentiary hearing, Mr. Bustillo convinced the federal trial judge that the agents had misrepresented facts about how the arrest and subsequent searches occurred. Finding that the agents had violated the United States Constitution, the trial judge suppressed all of the evidence and dismissed the charges against the cab driver. The government, realizing that its agents had broken the law, returned the $40,000 to the cab driver. The case was a complete victory.