Professional and personal obligations sometimes get in the way of keeping up with our courts. July has been full of appellate law developments that deserve attention. This is the first of several posts that will do that....

Chief Justice Rabner has issued the 2026-27 General Assignment Order, which is available here. As regards the Appellate Division, some things have changed while others remain the same....

Diana v. LVNV Funding, LLC, ___ N.J. ___ (2026). [Disclosure: I represented amici curiae Consumers League of New Jersey and National Association of Consumer Attorneys in this appeal]. In a unanimous opinion by Justice Hoffman, the Supreme Court held that plaintiff, suing on behalf of a putative class, could not assert an implied private right of action to void a loan contract, pursuant to the New Jersey Consumer Finance Licensing Act, CFLA, N.J.S.A. 17:11C-1 to -49 ("CFLA"), against institutional debt-buyer defendants that allegedly purchased his credit card debt without a requisite license....

Reed v. Muoio, ___ N.J. ___ (2026). As Justice Noriega said in his unanimous opinion in this appeal, the case centered on a 1995 amendment to the New Jersey Constitution, N.J. Const. art. VIII, § 2, ¶ 5), that "prohibit[ed] any law, rule, or regulation that was determined to be an unfunded mandate." The amendment directed the Legislature to establish the Council on Unfunded Mandates ("the Council") to resolve whether a statute, rule, or regulation was an unfunded mandate. The issue in this case was whether the Council exceeded its powers....

In the time since the most recent post on this blog about published Appellate Division opinions, that court issued published rulings in four cases. Here are summaries:...

In the time since the most recent post on this blog about Supreme Court opinions, the Court issued rulings in three cases. Here are summaries:...

Last Friday was Juneteenth, and courts were closed, making it a short week. During that week, there were no Supreme Court opinions issued, but the Appellate Division published decisions in two matters, one of which encompassed fourteen cases. Here are summaries:...

This week saw two Supreme Court opinions and one published Appellate Division decision. Here are summaries:...

The Supreme Court issued no opinions this week. The Appellate Division issued just one published ruling....

Last week saw two published Appellate Division decisions. One was authored by Judge Mawla and the other by Judge D'Almeida....