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

Statutory Requirement That Parties to a Written Palimony Agreement Get Advice of Counsel is Unconstitutional

Moynihan v. Lynch, ___ N.J. ___ (2022). Plaintiff and defendant had what Justice Albin, in his opinion for a unanimous Supreme Court, called "a long-term ‘marital-style' relationship." Anticipating that they...

A Public Employee's Date of Separation From Employment and the Reasons Therefor Are Not Exempt From Disclosure Under OPRA

Libertarians for Transparent Government v. Cumberland County, ___ N.J. ___ (2022). This is an Open Public Records Act ("OPRA") case. A woman who had been incarcerated at the Cumberland County...

Fifteen Years Since Liberty Surplus Ins. Corp. v. Nowell Amoroso, P.A.

It's been awhile since this blog featured an anniversary post. Today is a good day to do so. On this date in 2007, the Supreme Court decided Liberty Surplus Ins...

Two Accelerated Appeals, and Four More, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in six cases. Three of those involve grants of leave to appeal and three are grants of certification. The Court accelerated...

Justice Fernandez-Vina Reaches Age 70 and Retires From the Supreme Court

Yesterday, Justice Fernandez-Vina turned seventy years old. That is the mandatory retirement age for judges, which Justice O'Hern, for whom I clerked, referred to as "the age of constitutional senility."...

Chief Justice Rabner Announces That the Supreme Court Will Function With Six Members For Now

Following this post about Justice Fernandez-Vina's retirement earlier today, Chief Justice Rabner this afternoon issued the following statement, available here: "Under the State Constitution and the rules of the Court...

Last Week's Published Opinions

Last week just flew by. So, belatedly, here are summaries of the week's published opinions by the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division: Graphnet, Inc. v. Retarus, Inc., ___ N.J....

The Supreme Court Takes Up, and Accelerates, a Fifth Amendment Case

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in State v. Clark. The question presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk's office, is "Did the admission of evidence...

The Supreme Court Upholds the Redistricting Commission's Choice of the Democrats' Congressional District Map

In re Establishment of Congressional Districts by the New Jersey Redistricting Commission, ___ N.J. ___ (2022). As summarized here, in a lawsuit brought directly to the Supreme Court under its...

The Supreme Court Takes Up a Sports Tort Case

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in Dennehy v. East Windsor Board of Education. The question presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk's office, is "When...

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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....