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

A Vist from Justice Breyer

Two episodes of New Jersey Network's television program "Due Process," which are currently scheduled to air in June, will feature an interview with Supreme Court of the United States Justice Stephen Breyer by hosts Raymond Brown...

One Plaintiff is a Catalyst for Relief, But Another Plaintiff is Not

Smith v. Hudson County Register, 2011 WL 1529730 (App. Div. April 25, 2011). This opinion, by Judge Sabatino, applied the catalyst doctrine to an Open Public Records Act ("OPRA") case. In Mason...

When the Supreme Court Made Orders Compelling Arbitration Immediately Appealable

On this date in 2008, the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided Wein v. Morris, 194 N.J. 364 (2008). That case involved an order dismissing a lawsuit and directing that...

The Effect on the Appellate Division of a Split in Federal Decisions on a Constitutional Issue

State v. Witczak, 2011 WL 1364012 (App. Div. April 12, 2011). This blog usually is allergic to criminal decisions. But this criminal case involved a virtually even split in the federal Circuit Courts...

No April Fool

On April Fool's Day, 1968, the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided McLaughlin v. Bassing, 51 N.J. 410 (1968). In a one-sentence ruling, the Court reversed the Appellate Division's dismissal...

36 Years Since Mount Laurel I

On this date in 1975, the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided Southern Burlington Cty. NAACP v. Mount Laurel Tp., 67 N.J. 151 (1975). There, the Court held that each...

Lombardi v. Masso to be Argued on March 28

As discussed here, Lombardi v. Masso, a case pending in the Supreme Court of New Jersey, presents potentially important issues regarding the application of the law of the case doctrine. The Court...

All Five Women Supreme Court Justices Speak

Imagine that someone assembled Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant to discuss how to win NBA championships. The parallel to such a gathering, for those interested...

Strict Liability for Violations of Consumer Fraud Act Regulations

For years after the adoption of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, N.J.S.A. 56:8-1 et seq. ("CFA"), it was unclear whether a violation of a regulation promulgated under the authority...

A Red-Letter Date in Administrative Law

On February 27, 1950, the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided Handlon v. Town of Belleville, 4 N.J. 99 (1950). The case was one of the first decided by the...

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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....