The story has since dropped fallen from the front page, but when the November 2014 death of a 15-month old boy at his daycare initially occurred, it ignited a firestorm of controversy and outrage. When it came out that the facility was not licensed as required by state law, fuel was only added to the debate. Nearly everyone had an opinion about the case with viewpoints at one extreme including those supporting murder charges against the individual to those, at the opposite extreme, who felt that the government had no role to play in the oversight of the facility. However, regardless of one’s personal views, this matter provides an important lesson for New Jersey small business owners providing childcare services.

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In New Jersey there are an array of consumer protection and regulatory laws that businesses must always be accounted for in all business plans.  These laws and regulations include the Automotive Sales Regulations, the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, the Motor Vehicle Advertising Regulations, the Used Car Lemon Law, New Car Lemon Law and relevant Lemon Law regulations. Dealerships that fail to adhere to these standards can face harsh regulatory action, or in the case of a serious violation, criminal charges.

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While many would claim that this all began on an August day in 2013, it is likely that the seeds of employee behavior that contributed to the tragic death of Ashley Chieco and the severe injuries to motorist Dana Corrar were planted much earlier. As reported by NJ.com and other media sources, Ms. Chieco purchased her first drink at 11:07 a.m. and began drinking at Point Pleasant beach before noon. She did not eat the entire day. Throughout the course of the day bartenders at Martel’s beachside bar served Ms. Chieco a number of vodka-based mixed drinks.

At around 5 p.m., Ms. Chieco left the bar and headed out to the parking lot. While the parking lot was staffed, vehicles were not secured. At the attendant’s request, patrons had left vehicles with keys in the ignition. However these vehicles were either not being closely supervised or they were unsupervised. In her state, Ms. Chieco managed to climb into an SUV that had a similar appearance to to hers, despite not driving to the beach that day, and she drove away.

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The red light traffic camera ticketing program began its life in New Jersey in 2008 as a pilot program. The program was originally limited to only the cities and municipalities of East Brunswick, Roselle Park, and Newark. In 2009, nine municipalities were approved to install these traffic enforcement devices. By the end of the program in December 2014, about 24 towns and cities had signed on for the program. According to red light traffic camera data provided by PhotoEnforced, these towns included:

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Companies that provide moving services inherently come into their customers’ lives at a time when the individual is particularly vulnerable. That is, the person is leaving behind the area they are familiar with and moving to a new location where they may not have the same social and professional connections. Furthermore, they are entrusting the movers with some of their most valuable possessions in terms of monetary value and personal sentiment.

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