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

Discovery Masters

Zehl v. Elizabeth Bd. of Educ., 426 N.J. Super. 129 (App. Div. 2012). Rule 4:41 allows a court to appoint a discovery master to deal with discovery issues "only upon approval by...

A Perplexing Exercise in Interpreting an Administrative Regulation

US Bank, N.A. v. Hough, 210 N.J. 187 (2012). There seems to be infinite room for judges, or Justices, to disagree about how to interpret statutes or regulations. Sometimes, there are differences even...

Work Product Doctrine and Common Interest Privilege Exempt Documents From Disclosure Under OPRA or Common Law Right of Access

O'Boyle v. Borough of Longport, 426 N.J. Super. 1 (App. Div. 2012). This is yet another Open Public Records Act ("OPRA") case. Plaintiff was a frequent antagonist of the defendant Borough, hostility...

Three Appellate Practice Nuggets from the NJSBA Annual Meeting

The NJSBA Annual Meeting in Atlantic City featured a program today on the "nuts and bolts" of appellate practice. The panel of speakers was headed by Judges Carchman and Messano....

JCP&L Can be Liable for Negligent Placement of Electrical Pole

Seals v. County of Morris, 210 N.J. 157 (2012). While driving on a snow-covered road, plaintiffs could not negotiate a curve in the road and struck a JCP&L electrical pole located near the...

Attorney Charging Lien Subordinated to Interest of Preserving Funds for Children's Education

Sauro v. Sauro, 425 N.J. Super. 555 (App. Div. 2012). This contentious divorce action boiled down to the complaint of a large law firm that an equitable distribution award was improper because, in making...

Cap on Sick Leave Payments to School Administrators Upheld

New Jersey Ass'n of School Adminstrators v. Schundler, 211 N.J. 535 (2012). This case required the Supreme Court to parse and reconcile an unusually complex scheme of statutes and regulations that dealt...

Supreme Court Will Review Emma v. Evans

In Emma v. Evans, 424 N.J. Super. 36 (App. Div. 2012), the Appellate Division addressed the question of whether the presumption in favor of the parent of primary residence who seeks a...

Attorney Disqualified From Representing Party in Same Matter Where Attorney Previously Represented Adverse Party

Twenty-First Century Rail Corp. v. New Jersey Transit Corp., 210 N.J. 264 (2012). This case involved an effort to disqualify counsel in a construction case for a conflict of interest under Rule...

The Boundaries of Expert Opinion

State v. Locascio, 425 N.J. Super. 474 (App. Div. 2012). Expert opinion is an area in which decisions in the criminal realm find their way into civil cases as well. For example, Kemp...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143144145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167…Last

"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....