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

An Appeal About Whether a Case is Immediately Appealable, and Two Others for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted certification in three more cases. One of them, Harris v. City of Newark, involves an appellate practice issue. The question presented...

Appellate Division Procedures to Expedite Appeals From Denial of Medical Furlough Applications by Inmates

As discussed here, the Supreme Court recently added due process protections to Governor Murphy's Executive Order No. 124, which created a mechanism to identify persons held in state prisons or...

A Due Process Travesty in a Workers Compensation Case

McGory v. SLS Landscaping, 463 N.J. Super. 463 (App. Div. 2020). Judge Vernoia pulled no punches in this opinion for the Appellate Division today. Writing for a unanimous panel, Judge...

Back in Action

The appellate courts have not been idle since the most recent post on this blog. Opinions have been issued, the Supreme Court has taken up more cases for review, and...

Third Circuit Will Continue to Hear Oral Arguments Despite Coronavirus

The Third Circuit announced today that it "is open for business and will fulfill its constitutional and statutory obligations and responsibilities." Oral arguments will continue as scheduled, but merits panels...

The Civil Practice Committee Proposes One Substantive Amendment to the Appellate Rules

The Supreme Court Civil Practice Committee just issued its 2020 report about proposed (and rejected) amendments to the New Jersey Court Rules. The full report is available here. Comments on...

Stays Pending Appeal- Another Anniversary

With relatively rare exceptions, stays pending appeal do not get a lot of attention in published cases. That is because decisions on applications for such stays, by their nature, are...

If a Defendant Waives a Personal Jurisdiction Defense, a Court Cannot Dismiss for Lack of Personal Jurisdiction

Triffin v. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Auth., 462 N.J. Super. 172 (App. Div. 2020). Judge Fisher issued the Appellate Division's opinion on this appeal just eight days after it was argued....

Amendments Proposed to Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure 3 and 42

The Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States has issued a preliminary draft of amendments to various rules, including Federal Rules of...

Supplementary Statement of Reasons by a Trial Level Judge, Redux

Abdelkader v. Hosny, 2018 WL 3579897 (App. Div. July 26, 2018). In State in Interest of N.P., 453 N.J. Super. 480 (App. Div. 2018), discussed here, Judge Messano discussed the...

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No Ethics Violation in Attorney Purchasing Another Attorney's Name as a Keyword for Internet Searches, the Supreme Court Says, With a Caveat

In re Opinion No. 735 of the Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). [Disclosure: I represented an amicus curiae in this appeal]. As Justice Noriega said in his opinion for a 5-1 majority (Justice Pierre-Louis did not participate), this appeal "presents the narrow question of whether it is permissible under the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC) for an attorney or law firm to purchase a competing attorney's or law firm's name as a keyword." The Court found it permissible, with a caveat. Justice Fasciale dissented....

Four Criminal Law Cases, and a Qui Tam Appeal, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted review in five new appeals. One of them is before the Court on leave to appeal, while in the others the Court granted certification....

The "Limited Attorney Exemption" of the Debt Adjustment and Credit Counseling Act is Held Unconstitutional as Violative of the Separation of Powers and Void for Vagueness

Anchor Law Firm, PLLC v. State of New Jersey, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2025). The Debt Adjustment and Credit Counseling Act, N.J.S.A. 17:16G-1 et seq. ("DACCA"), prohibits debt adjusters in New Jersey from operating for a profit. There is an exception for attorneys not "principally engaged" (a term not defined in the statute) in debt adjustment. That exception, adopted in a 1986 amendment, replaced a prior version of the DACCA that had exempted all attorneys from its scope....

Appellate Division Oral Argument of the Week: Where a Party Files a Suit Alleged to Violate the UPEPA But Quickly Dismisses It, Can Defendants Then Get Counsel Fees Under the Statute?

On May 15, judges on Part C of the Appellate Division will hear oral argument in Satz v. Keshet Starr. Plaintiff, acting pro se, filed a defamation suit against defendants. Defendants filed an o order to show cause to dismiss the case and for attorneys' fees under the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-49 et seq. ("UPEPA"). The UPEPA, enacted in 2023, sought to make it more difficult to use the legal system as a weapon to bully individuals into silence by filing what have been known as SLAPP ("strategic lawsuits against public participation") suits....