NJ Appellate Law Blog – NJ Appellate Lawyer Bruce D. Greenberg blogs about Appeals and Appellate Law Practice

Allegedly No Goodness to be Thankful for at TGI Friday's for Drink Consumers, But Class Certification Gets Reversed

Dugan v. TGI Fridays, Inc., 445 N.J. Super. 59 (App. Div. 2016). This putative consumer class action has a long procedural history, including a previous appeal to the Appellate Division,...

A Win for Class Action Plaintiffs at the U.S. Supreme Court

Tyson Foods v. Bouaphakeo, ___ U.S. ___ (2016). This decision, issued today, is one of several closely-watched class action cases at the Supreme Court of the United States this year....

Special Sunday Alert: Justice Scalia Dies

Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States died yesterday. Born in Trenton, New Jersey on March 11, 1936, he was 79 at his death. A graduate...

Evangelides Memorial Lecture on February 9 at Rutgers University- "Class Action Litigation: Who Benefits?"

I have been tapped to deliver the 27th Annual Alice and Stephen Evangelides Lecture at the Eagleton Institute of Politics in New Brunswick on February 9 at 8 P.M. The...

Some Common Sense on Class Actions from the U.S. Supreme Court

Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, 136 S. Ct. 846 (2016). The Supreme Court of the United States has made some dreadful decisions in the class action area, including notorious rulings restricting...

Supreme Court Grants Review of a Class Action Appeal

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted review in Myska v. New Jersey Manufacturers Ins. Co., 440 N.J. Super. 458 (App. Div. 2015). [Disclosure: I am co-counsel for...

A Lesson in the Commonality and Predominance Criteria of Federal Rule 23

Reyes v. Netdeposit, LLC, 802 F.3d 469 (3d Cir. 2015). Sometimes things slip through the cracks. This opinion by Chief Judge McKee was issued on September 2, but only now...

The Third Circuit Upholds Class Certification in a Long-Running Case

In re Community Bank of Northern Virginia Mortgage Lending Practices Litigation, 795 F.3d 380 (3d Cir. 2015). Every five years, the Third Circuit issues an opinion on class certification in...

The Seventh Circuit Rejects Carrera Ascertainability, and Cites Judge Fisher With Approval

Regular readers of this blog have seen frequent criticism of the class action "ascertainability" doctrine espoused by Carrera v. Bayer Corp., 727 F.3d 300 (3d Cir. 2013). Recently, as discussed...

Prudent Practitioners Prune Points on Appeal

The point has often been made, including here and here, that appellants' briefs are best off if they focus on the few best arguments available, rather than raising every conceivable...

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"Hot Fun in the Summertime": Appellate Division Summer Parts

In an Order available here, Chief Justice Rabner announced the lineup for the Appellate Division's summer Parts. As has been customary, the "summer" runs not between the meteorological start and end dates for summer, nor from Memorial Day to Labor Day, but from June 16 through September 7....

The Supreme Court Confirms That Municipalities Can be Subjected to Sanctions for Frivolous Litigation

Borough of Englewood Cliffs v. Trautner, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). This appeal presented the question of whether municipalities can be liable to pay sanctions for frivolous litigation, under the Frivolous Litigation Statute, N.J.S.A. 2A:15-59.1 ("the FLS"). In a 5-0 opinion written by Justice Fasciale (Chief Justice Rabner and Justice Hoffman did not participate), the Court affirmed, as modified, the decision of the Appellate Division that upheld the Law Division's imposition of FLS sanctions against the Borough....

The "Castle Doctrine"

State v. Bragg, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). A jury found defendant guilty of twelve charged counts, including attempted murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, endangering, and two lesser-included offenses of harassment. Some of those charges involved the use of deadly force. Persons may not use deadly force if the can retreat with complete safety. But under the "castle doctrine," an exception to the general rule, a person "is not obliged to retreat from his dwelling, unless he was the initial aggressor." N.J.S.A. 2C:3-4(b)(2)(b)(i). That doctrine derives from the common law....

No Arbitrariness in Rejection of Public Construction Bid That Failed to Include a Properly Signed, Required Consent of Surety

In the Matter of Protest Filed by El Sol Contracting and Construction Corp., Contract T100.638, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). This public bidding case resulted in a 5-2 split at the Supreme Court, the first non-unanimous ruling of the current Term. Justice Hoffman wrote the majority opinion, while Justice Fasciale authored the dissent for himself and Justice Pierre-Louis....