Joseph A. Hayden, Jr. Quoted in the New Jersey Law Journal

Joseph A. Hayden, Jr., co-chair of the Criminal Defense and Investigations practices at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C., was quoted by the New Jersey Law Journal in an article titled “Return of Dissents: New Jersey Supreme Court Breaks Yearlong Streak of Unanimous Opinions." The article discusses how after a year of the New Jersey Supreme Court issuing exclusively unanimous opinions, the court has broken its streak with a pair of dissents issued in two criminal cases.

“I think the fact that you have a high degree of consensus, it is clear that you have a leader who tries to bring reason to the discussions, and who doesn’t alienate people in discussions,” said Hayden, the founder and first president of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey, as well as a former clerk to a chief justice of the court.

Hayden said that the strength of the court is in the justices’ preparation and ability to ask probing questions to find out the record, the facts and the principles, and that they do not grandstand or set forth their ideological beliefs.

Hayden expanded, “This court is very prepared and they know the record. You have the feeling in their questioning that it is to get to the bottom of a legal issue, as opposed to arguing with another member of the court, as sometimes happens in the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“I think we have new justices who are strong intellectually and have a sense of fairness. They are going to be around a long time. And that is a good thing,” Hayden said.

To read the full article, click here.