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

Barring Owner of Two-Family Home From Leasing Both Units to Renters is Unlawful

Tirpak v. Borough of Point Pleasant Beach, 457 N.J. Super. 441 (App. Div. 2019). This per curiam opinion, issued today by a panel consisting of Judges Sabatino, Haas, and Sumners,...

The Appellate Division Confesses Error

State v. Berisha, 458 N.J. Super. 105 (App. Div. 2019). None of us likes to admit our mistakes. That includes judges, of course, though judges sometimes do change their minds,...

The Supreme Court Grants Certification in Five Cases

Late last Friday, the Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in five more cases. There are four civil appeals and one criminal matter. The criminal case is actually...

Appellate Practice Insights From Judge Vernoia

The guest speaker at last night's meeting of the NJSBA Appellate Practice Committee was Judge Vernoia. He offered some of his thoughts and insights about appellate practice and answered questions...

Drug Court and Expungements

In re Expungement of Arrest-Charge Records of T.B., 236 N.J. 262 (2019). Today, the Supreme Court issued its first opinion of 2019, a unanimous ruling by Chief Justice Rabner. The...

Pendent Appellate Jurisdiction

Reinig v. RBS Citizens, N.A., 912 F.3d 115 (3d Cir. 2018). This was the final published opinion of 2018 for the Third Circuit. Authored by Judge Vanaskie, the opinion reverses...

Judge Koblitz Instructs About How to Conduct Non-Dissolution, "FD," Child Custody Proceedings

J.G. v. J.H., 457 N.J. Super. 365 (App. Div. 2019). Though many cases involving child custody arise out of divorce proceedings, other such cases occur in other settings. In the...

Trial Judges Have Discretion to Replay Counsel's Summations Upon a Jury's Request

State v. Brown, 457 N.J. Super. 345 (App. Div. 2018). Deliberating jurors often request that trial testimony be read back to them. As Judge Sabatino noted n his opinion in...

2017-18 Supreme Court and Appellate Division Statistics

The Annual Report of the New Jersey Courts for the court year 2017-18 has been published and is available here. The Report is full of useful information about the judiciary...

At Thanksgiving, Gratitude for an Independent Judiciary

The current occupant of the White House lost the 2016 Presidential election by nearly 3,000,000 votes. He occupies the White House because the law (Article 2, Section 1 of, and 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....