Justice Helen Hoens will likely be remembered as the greatest individual victim of the rift between Gov. Chris Christie and the Legislature over the composition of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Denied tenure-to spare her from the savagery of a contested reappointment, Christie said-the 59-year old jurist with almost 20 years on the bench stepped down on Oct. 25, less than a year before she would have been entitled to a full judicial pension. That cost her almost half of a nearly $140,000 pension and lopped 11 years off her judicial career, assuming she would have stayed until mandatory retirement at age 70.

During her last appearance at oral arguments before the court on Oct. 8, Hoens chose not to comment "on the roiling waters of politics that swamped the little boat of my judicial career." She said she was "content to let history judge me by the body of work I have left behind."

Her seven years as a justice indeed form a legacy. She authored 90 opinions, among them some of the court's most consequential in areas of particular concern to lawyers-including drunken driving cases, remittitur of jury verdicts in personal injury actions and consumer fraud suits.

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The List: Top 10 Monetary Settlements in New Jersey Civil Cases 

By Paula Saha | NJ Spotlight

November 4, 2013

Despite the fact that the number of civil cases involving large monetary verdicts and settlements dropped slightly in the past year, experts say it's too soon to spot a trend.

Between August 1, 2012 and this past July 31, 113 cases yielded recoveries -- either jury verdicts or settlements -- of $1 million or more, according to the 2013 New Jersey Legal Almanac released last month.