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

The County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey Is Not a Public Agency Subject to the Open Public Records Act

American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey v. County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey, 257 N.J. 87 (2024). The ACLU of New Jersey sought five categories of records from defendant...

"Illusory Discounts" Violate the Consumer Fraud Act, But Private Plaintiffs Cannot Prevail

Robey v. SPARC Group, LLC, 256 N.J. 541 (2024). Today saw a relatively rare 4-3 decision from the Supreme Court. The majority consisted of Justice Solomon, the author of the...

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and Emotional Support Animals in Condominiums

Players Place II Condominium Ass'n, Inc. v. K.P., 256 N.J. 472 (2024). This case came to the Supreme Court as of right, due to a dissent in the Appellate Division...

This Week's Published Opinions

Another week, another week where work for clients made it impossible to keep up with the courts. This week featured two unanimous opinions from the Supreme Court, one civil, one...

Supreme Court Statistics for the 2022-23 Term

What better date to present statistics from the 2022-23 Supreme Court Term than the first working day (for many people) of this new calendar year? And who better to have...

Judges Vanek and Vinci Are Again Temporarily Elevated to the Appellate Division

Chief Justice Rabner announced that Judges Christine Vanek and Robert Vinci have been temporarily assigned to the Appellate Division. Both assignments are effective on January 2, 2024 and have no...

Another Short Week, and Another Catch-Up Post

In the past two weeks, an Appellate Division brief and a Supreme Court petition consumed much time. So, in this shortened Thanksgiving week, it's time to catch up on the...

The First Half of August- Supreme Court Decisions in Civil Cases

Following up on yesterday's post regarding criminal appeals decided by the Supreme Court in the first half of August, this post summarizes the Court's decisions in civil cases during that...

The First Half of August- Supreme Court Decisions in Criminal Cases

Due to a combination of factors, there have been no posts on this blog in the first half of August. This post will begin the catch-up process by summarizing the...

"510(k)" Evidence Was Improperly Excluded in Products Liability Matters, Requiring New Trial

Hrymoc v. Ethicon, Inc., 254 N.J. 446 (2023). As explained in more detail here, this was a products liability case involving "pelvic mesh" devices. (Actually, there were two consolidated cases,...

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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....