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

Faxes That Are Not "Advertisements" Do Not Violate The Telephone Consumer Protection Act Even if Sent for a Commercial Purpose or Motivated by Profit

Mauthe, M.D., P.C. v. Optum Inc., 925 F.3d 129 (3d Cir. 2019). Plaintiff, a medical practice, received an unsolicited fax from defendants. Defendants maintain a database of healthcare providers, a...

Thirteen Years Since Perez v. Rent-A-Center

On March 15, 2006, the Supreme Court decided Perez v. Rent-A-Center, 186 N.J. 188 (2006). By a 6-1 vote, with Justice Rivera-Soto issuing a partial dissent, the Court held in...

A Key Consumer Fraud Case for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in All the Way Towing, LLC v. Bucks County International, Inc. The question presented on this appeal, as phrased by the Supreme...

Some Clarity on the Substantive Provisions of the TCCWNA

Spade v. Select Comfort Corp., 232 N.J. 504 (2018). [Disclosure: My partner Susana Cruz Hodge and I submitted an amicus curiae brief in support of the plaintiffs in this case,...

When It's All About the Dicta

City Select Auto Sales, Inc. v. David Randall Associates, Inc., 885 F.3d 154 (3d Cir. 2018). This Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA") case, involving unwanted faxes, was tried to a...

Another Certified Question Case From the Third Circuit, and Another Criminal Appeal, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it will take up two more matters. One is a certified question from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in a consumer protection context, specifically,...

The First Step Toward Rejection of a Dubious Consumer Fraud Act Defense

All the Way Towing, LLC v. Bucks County International, Inc., 452 N.J. Super. 565 (App. Div. 2018). Today's opinion by Judge Fisher reaffirms a fundamental principle: on summary judgment, a...

More Than an Eyedropper's Worth of Analysis of Standing

Cottrell v. Alcon Laboratories, 874 F.3d 154 (3d Cir. 2017). Eye drops can be helpful to many people, but putting drops in one's eyes is unpleasant at many levels. One...

Health Club Membership Agreements Are Not Retail Installment Sales Contracts

Mellet v. Aquasid, LLC, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2017). The decision in this consumer protection case was issued in June as an unpublished opinion. Defendant then asked the...

A Retreat From the Third Circuit's Misguided Class Action Ascertainability Doctrine, and a Wise Concurrence by Judge Fuentes

City Select Auto Sales, Inc. v. BMW Bank of North America Inc., 867 F.3d 434 (3d Cir. 2017). Judge Scirica, who wrote the Hayes and Carrera opinions that form 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 "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....

Appellate Division Published Opinions During and After Its Recess

The final day of the Appellate Division's two-week recess was April 25. On that date, the Appellate Division issued a published opinion. Two more published opinions followed during the current week. Here are summaries of those opinions....