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Frank J. Zinna

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  • Principal

Location:

Nutley, NJ

Phone:

Fax:

973-661-5157

Email:

Frank J. Zinna is a graduate of Seton Hall University Law School, cum laude, where he also served as Associate Editor of the Seton Hall Law Review.  After graduating law school and serving a judicial clerkship in the Essex County Superior Court, Zinna joined the law firm of James M. Piro in 1973 and has been a partner at Piro, Zinna, Cifelli, Paris & Genitempo for four decades.

Zinna specializes in family law litigation, including issues involving alimony, child support, custody, distribution of property and division of debt and pre, mid and post marital agreements.  Frank was chosen by his peers as the recipient of the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for Family Trial Lawyers, by the Essex County Bar Association.

Zinna coordinates the Matrimonial Early Settlement Panels for the Essex County Family Division and is a Member of the Early Settlement Panel Statewide Chairs Organization.  Zinna sits as a Blue Ribbon Masters Panelist to assist in the mediation of complex matrimonial cases.  He is a Member of the Barry I. Croland Inn of Court.  Zinna is admitted as an attorney and counselor of the Supreme Court of the United States.  He had served as a Municipal Court Judge for over 25 years and was previously appointed by the New Jersey Supreme Court to serve as Chairman of the Conference of Presiding Judges of Municipal Courts and as the Presiding Judge for the Morris and Sussex County Municipal Courts.

Zinna has also served by an appointment of the New Jersey Supreme Court to the New Jersey Advisory Committee on Extra Judicial Activities.  Zinna has also previously served as Assistant Counsel to the New Jersey State Senate.

Zinna's reputation of integrity, fairness and intelligence is well known and he has been recognized by Martindale-Hubbell for the past 35 years, through a strenuous peer review rating process, as having the highest possible peer review rating in legal ability and ethical standards.

Areas of Practice

  • Family Law Litigation 95%
  • Municipal Tax Appeals 5%

Bar Admissions

  • New Jersey, 1973
  • U.S. District Court District of New Jersey, 1972
  • Supreme Court of the United States of America, 2008

Education

  • Seton Hall University School of Law, Newark, New Jersey
    • J.D.
    • Honors: cum laude
  • Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey, New Jersey
    • B.S.

Honors and Awards

  • AV Preeminent Rating by Martindale-Hubbell
  • Essex County Bar Association - Lifetime Achievement Award for Family Trial Lawyers

Past Employment Positions

  • Essex County Superior Court, Judicial Law Clerkship, 1972 to 1973
  • Township Attorney, Belleville, New Jersey, 1974 to 1986
  • New Jersey State Senate, Assistant Counsel, 1982 to 1986
  • Municipal Court Judge, Belleville, New Jersey, 1986 to 2013
  • Presiding Municipal Court Judge, Morris and Sussex Counties, 1992 to 2013

Verdicts & Settlements

$2 million present value policy limit structured settlement of serious motorcycle/truck accident with brain injury (pay-out anticipated of over $10 million)

Approx. $2 million settlement to clients who were victims of the Labor Day Passaic industrial fire

$1.9 million settlement for construction site accident causing neurological injuries

$750,000 settlement for construction site accident causing ankle injury and emotional distress

Over $25 million dollar anticipated lifetime structured settlement for infant vaccine injury claim

Multimillion-dollar lifetime structured settlement of cerebral palsy claim

$3 million jury verdict for delayed diagnosis of breast cancer

$2.6 million settlement for birth injury caused by medical malpractice