Rickards Wins Appeal of a Final Restraining Order

In an unpublished opinion, the New Jersey Appellate Division today reversed a trial court which had imposed a final restraining order (“FRO”) on a defendant who had not been given the opportunity to appear at the hearing because he was incarcerated at the time and held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The same trial court then denied three post-judgment motions, all of which called to the court’s attention that the defendant had been incarcerated at the time of the hearing, and therefore was not given the opportunity to be present. The defendant then hired The Law Office of Jordan B. Rickards to appeal the trial court’s decision and vacate the restraining order.

Rickards argued that the constitutional and statutory rights of the defendant were violated because the court, upon learning of the defendant’s incarceration, wrongfully denied the defendant’s motions.  The Appellate Division agreed with Rickards, reversed the trial court, and vacated the final restraining order, saying:

“We are convinced the denial of defendant’s reconsideration motion was error. The judge focused on whether defendant’s counsel was able to provide additional evidence of defendant’s inability to attend the FRO hearing, while ignoring evidence already in the record, indicating he should not have proceeded with the FRO default hearing in the first place. Indeed, the FRO hearing transcript reveals no effort by the trial judge to determine defendant’s whereabouts after plaintiff informed him defendant was arrested the night of the incident… The judge should have granted the motion for reconsideration because his initial decision was palpably incorrect and failed to ‘appreciate the significance of the probative, competent evidence’ in the record.”

The happy clients responded: “Jordan, I call Michael, Christina, and Marilina the ‘Dream Team’ because of the brilliant work they have done. I am so thankful to include you as part of the Dream Team because of your compassion for your clients, willingness to listen, strong writing ability, and knowledge of the law. Another wrong made right! Thank you, Jordan. We are indebted to you all!”

The full opinion of the Appellate Division can be found here: https://www.njcourts.gov/attorneys/assets/opinions/appellate/unpublished/a2952-20.pdf?c=wkD

The case citation is: D.S.J.-S. v. O.L.-A., No. A-1146-20, 2022 N.J.Super. Unpub. (Super. Ct. App. Div. March 31, 2022).