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

A Dead Person Cannot Bring Suit

Repko v. Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, Inc., 464 N.J. Super. 570 (App. Div. 2020). Judge Accurso's brief opinion in this case today addressed a "question [that] appears to...

"Good Cause" is Required to Amend a Complaint After a Scheduling Order Deadline for Amendment Has Passed

Premier Comp Solutions, LLC v. UPMC, 730 F.3d 316 (3d Cir. 2020). Under Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, amendments to pleadings are liberally granted. But when...

Powering Up Again

The power outage resulting from last week's storm put a crimp in much of that week. So it is time once again to catch up with our Supreme Court and...

Challenges to Class Representative's Adequacy and to Predominance of Common Issues Fail to Overturn Class Certification in Antitrust Class Case

In re Suboxone Antitrust Litig., 967 F.3d 264 (3d Cir. 2020). In this antitrust class action case, direct purchasers of Suboxone, a prescription pharmaceutical used to treat addiction to opioids,...

Entire Controversy Doctrine Does Not Bar Second Case Brought by Party Who, as a Defendant, Defeated a Prior Case for Failure to State a Claim

Bank Leumi USA v. Kloss, 243 N.J. 218 (2020). As discussed here, this was a case involving a certified question from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and for the...

Straight to the Supreme Court for the New Jersey Republican State Committee's Constitutional Challenge to the New Jersey COVID-19 Emergency Bond Act

On July 16, the New Jersey Republican State Committee and other plaintiffs filed suit against Governor Murphy in the Law Division, Mercer County. The lawsuit asserts that the New Jersey...

An Assortment of New Cases for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in five new cases. They include a consumer class action, a parole matter, a criminal appeal, and two insurance-related cases. The...

Appellate Division Procedures to Expedite Appeals From Denial of Medical Furlough Applications by Inmates

As discussed here, the Supreme Court recently added due process protections to Governor Murphy's Executive Order No. 124, which created a mechanism to identify persons held in state prisons or...

When Do Intervenors Need to Demonstrate Article III Standing?

Wayne Land & Mineral Group, LLC v. Delaware River Basin Comm'n, 959 F.3d 569 (3d Cir. 2020). This opinion by Judge Fisher today involved a case in which plaintiff challenged...

From Judge Vernoia, a Discussion of "Opening the Door," The Rule of Completeness, and Lay Opinion Testimony

Grewal v. Greda, 463 N.J. Super. 489 (App. Div. 2020). This far too belated post is about a very informative opinion by Judge Vernoia last week. The case was one...

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No Ethics Violation in Attorney Purchasing Another Attorney's Name as a Keyword for Internet Searches, the Supreme Court Says, With a Caveat

In re Opinion No. 735 of the Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). [Disclosure: I represented an amicus curiae in this appeal]. As Justice Noriega said in his opinion for a 5-1 majority (Justice Pierre-Louis did not participate), this appeal "presents the narrow question of whether it is permissible under the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC) for an attorney or law firm to purchase a competing attorney's or law firm's name as a keyword." The Court found it permissible, with a caveat. Justice Fasciale dissented....

Four Criminal Law Cases, and a Qui Tam Appeal, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted review in five new appeals. One of them is before the Court on leave to appeal, while in the others the Court granted certification....

The "Limited Attorney Exemption" of the Debt Adjustment and Credit Counseling Act is Held Unconstitutional as Violative of the Separation of Powers and Void for Vagueness

Anchor Law Firm, PLLC v. State of New Jersey, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2025). The Debt Adjustment and Credit Counseling Act, N.J.S.A. 17:16G-1 et seq. ("DACCA"), prohibits debt adjusters in New Jersey from operating for a profit. There is an exception for attorneys not "principally engaged" (a term not defined in the statute) in debt adjustment. That exception, adopted in a 1986 amendment, replaced a prior version of the DACCA that had exempted all attorneys from its scope....

Appellate Division Oral Argument of the Week: Where a Party Files a Suit Alleged to Violate the UPEPA But Quickly Dismisses It, Can Defendants Then Get Counsel Fees Under the Statute?

On May 15, judges on Part C of the Appellate Division will hear oral argument in Satz v. Keshet Starr. Plaintiff, acting pro se, filed a defamation suit against defendants. Defendants filed an o order to show cause to dismiss the case and for attorneys' fees under the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-49 et seq. ("UPEPA"). The UPEPA, enacted in 2023, sought to make it more difficult to use the legal system as a weapon to bully individuals into silence by filing what have been known as SLAPP ("strategic lawsuits against public participation") suits....