You could be entitled to up to $400K if you were a client of these NJ attorneys

Clients of several New Jersey attorneys, including a Bergen County lawyer, could be eligible for up to a $400,000 payout as part of a state program.

Russell F. Anderson Jr. of Ho-Ho-Kus was one of four names released by New Jersey Courts for the fourth-quarter deadline for the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection claims. Also included are David L. Rosenthal out of Monmouth County, Paul J. Sica out of Middlesex County and Curtis Romanowski out of Texas.

According to the notice from the courts, the fund is to pay clients on behalf of “the honest majority of lawyers for the wrongdoing of a few.” Clients could receive up to $400,000 and the fund can provide up to $1.5 million in claims against a lawyer.

For eligibility, a claim must have been filed against a bar member or acting as an attorney or fiduciary during the incident. If not dead, the attorney has to have been disbarred, suspended, placed on disability inactive status or convicted of embezzlement or other misappropriation of property, the notice stated.

“The attorney’s conduct giving rise to the claim must have been dishonest rather than negligent,” it said.

The deadlines to file claims are:

• Anderson: Oct. 16
• Romanowski: Oct. 8
• Rosenthal: Jan. 17, 2026
• Sica: Nov. 26

The notice said the state Supreme Court’s decision to suspend or disbar someone triggers the fund’s “jurisdiction to receive claims against that attorney.” Those filing claims against the attorneys have a year after discipline is issued to file the claim, but the notice warned the discipline doesn’t “guarantee compensability.” However, the claim does not have to be part of the lawyer’s ethics determination to receive payment.

Claim forms can be found online, by calling 855-533-3863 or by writing to New Jersey’s Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection at Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex, P.O. Box 961, Trenton, NJ 08625.