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

Editorial: The 2020 Presidential Election

This is a non-partisan blog. It has thus, for example, featured endorsements of both Republican and Democratic nominees to the Supreme Court of New Jersey. And, as noted in this...

Three Grants of Leave to Appeal, and a Total of Five New Cases for the Supreme Court

Supreme Court grants of leave to appeal are infrequent, but the Court's latest wave of five new cases taken up for review includes three appeals on leave. All of those...

A Municipal Court Appeal Triggers the Appellate Division's "Didactic Role as an Intermediate Appellate Court"

State v. Faber, 465 N.J. Super. 1 (App. Div. 2020). Today's opinion by Judge Fuentes in this case, which originated in Municipal Court and then went to the Law Division,...

Judiciary Committee Unanimously Endorses Fabiana Pierre-Louis for the Supreme Court; Full Senate Vote is Thursday

After a 95-minute hearing today, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously endorsed the nomination of Fabiana Pierre-Louis as an Associate Justice on what she called, in her opening statement, "the finest...

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...

Consumer Fraud Act and Product Liability Act Claims Can Co-Exist

Sun Chemical Corp. v. Fike Corp., 243 N.J. 319 (2020). This opinion by Justice Solomon today resolved another question (originally, multiple questions, but reformulated into a single question by the...

The 2020-21 General Assignment Order

Chief Justice Rabner has issued the General Assignment Order for 2020-21, which is available here. Judge Ostrer has replaced Judge Koblitz, who will be retiring, as Presiding Judge of Part...

Judge Russo is Removed From Office Due to "Flagrant and Serious Acts of Misconduct"

Matter of Russo., 242 N.J. 179 (2020). As Chief Justice Rabner recounted in his opinion for a unanimous Supreme Court yesterday, Judge John F. Russo, Jr., has been an attorney...

"In the Good Old Summertime"- Appellate Division Summer Parts

Chief Justice Rabner has announced the lineup of Appellate Division Parts for the coming summer. The schedule consists of six 14-day "Sessions," beginning on June 15 and ending on September...

Judges Gummer and Smith Will be Temporarily Assigned to the Appellate Division as of September 1

Chief Justice Rabner announced the temporary assignment of two judges to the Appellate Division. The two judges, Katie Gummer and Morris Smith, will begin their temporary assignments on September 1,...

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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....