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

A Party's Trial Testimony by Contemporaneous Video Transmission

Pathri v. Kakarlamath, 462 N.J. Super. 208 (App. Div. 2020). This was a matrimonial matter. Both spouses came to the United States from India. Shortly after plaintiff filed this suit...

If a Defendant Waives a Personal Jurisdiction Defense, a Court Cannot Dismiss for Lack of Personal Jurisdiction

Triffin v. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Auth., 462 N.J. Super. 172 (App. Div. 2020). Judge Fisher issued the Appellate Division's opinion on this appeal just eight days after it was argued....

An Assortment of New Cases Get Supreme Court Review

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in four more cases. Three of them involve grants of certification. In the fourth appeal, the Court accepted a certified question...

The Most Common Deficiencies in Appellate Division Briefs and Appendices

The bane of every appellate practitioner's existence is the dreaded deficiency notice from the Appellate Division. Last night's meeting of the New Jersey State Bar Association's Appellate Practice Committee included...

Public Employee Pension Applications May be Reopened by Beneficiaries, Even if Those Applications Have Not Been Approved

Minsavage v. Board of Trustees, Teachers' Pension & Annuity Fund, ___ N.J. ___ (2019). This per curiam opinion addressed the question "whether a widow can modify the retirement application of...

Intra-State Relocation by a Divorced Parent, and Contempt for Unauthorized Moves

A.J. v. R.J., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2019). This opinion by Judge Mawla involved a primary custodial parent (plaintiff) who, due to a rent increase at her Elizabeth...

The Supreme Court Will Review Two More Published Appellate Division Opinions

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in two more cases, one civil appeal and one criminal matter. Both of the new appeals involve issues of expert testimony,...

The "Short and Plain Statement" Requirement of Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

Garrett v. Wexford Health, 938 F.3d 69 (3d Cir. 2019). This appeal was brought by a prisoner who claimed, as Chief Judge Smith summarized it, that "were deliberately indifferent to...

Can a Supreme Court Decision be Non-Binding on Lower Courts Without Being Overruled?

Unlike so many judicial opinions, which leave the reader in suspense about the outcome until the end, the answer to this question, right up front, is "yes." An Appellate Division...

Third Circuit Roundup

Even as the Appellate Division wound down the number of its published opinions in the second half of August, the Third Circuit seemed to rev up its publication of opinions....

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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....