NJ Appellate Law Blog

Certain Frivolous Litigation Sanctions are Reversed, But One Such Sanction is Affirmed

Tagayun v. AmeriChoice of New Jersey, Inc., 446 N.J. Super. 570 (App. Div. 2016). As Judge Higbee noted in her opinion for the Appellate Division today, Rule 1:4-8 or N.J.S.A....

A Reminder From the Appellate Division About Recent Appellate Rule Changes

This morning, the Appellate Division published a notice to the bar that was dated August 26, 2016. That notice is available here. The intent of the notice is to highlight...

Procedural Updates to Appellate Division Opinions and Forms

Today, the Appellate Division published a notice to the bar that was dated August 17, 2016. That notice can be found here. The notice advises of several procedural refinements that...

Amendments to the New Jersey Appellate Rules of Court, to be Effective on September 1, 2016

Today, the Supreme Court published an order dated August 1, 2016, which announced amendments to various court rules, all of which will take effect on September 1, 2016. That announcement...

Trial Courts May Not Take Away a Jury Trial as a Sanction for a Rule Violation

Williams v. American Auto Logistics, 226 N.J. 117 (2016). Parties who fail to follow procedural rules are a source of frustration to busy trial judges. As Justice Fernandez-Vina noted in...

"Purple Prose" Makes the Appellate Division See Red

McRae v. New Jersey Transit Bus Operations, Inc., 2016 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 1598 (App. Div. July 8, 2016). Appellate advocates like to write in ways that make an impact....

No Need for a Law Firm LLP to Have "Tail" Insurance, Says the Supreme Court

Mortgage Grader, Inc. v. Ward & Olivo, LLP, 225 N.J. 423 (2016). Justice Fernandez-Vina issued an opinion in this legal malpractice appeal today, his first opinion in quite some time,...

Two Days, Two New Law Against Discrimination Opinions From the Supreme Court

In each of the last two days, the Supreme Court issued unanimous opinions involving the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, N.J.S.A. 10:5-1 to -42 ("LAD"). Yesterday, in Smith v. Millville...

Failure to Recreate the District Court Record as Ordered Leads to a Loss on Appeal

Roberts v. Ferman, 826 F.3d 117 (3d Cir. 2016). Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 10(c) deals with the circumstance in which a transcript of a District Court hearing or trial...

When is a Child Witness Competent to Testify?

State v. Bueso, 225 N.J. 193 (2016). Today, the Supreme Court addressed the issue of how a trial court should evaluate the competency of a child witness to testify. The...

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Lisa Bigony Appointed Deputy Clerk of the Appellate Division

Chief Justice Rabner announced that Lisa D. Bigony has been named Appellate Division Deputy Clerk for Case Processing, effective today. In that role, according to a press release, she will be "responsible for oversight of the various units of case processing, including paralegal and legal, case processing, Civil Appeals Settlement Program, public access unit, calendaring, final disposition, and records and reception."...

The Supreme Court Grants Review of the Threshold Dismissal of a Trust and Estates Case

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in Dill v. Offray. The question presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk's office, is "Under the circumstances presented, should the Appellate Division have remanded the matter to the trial court after it held that defendant had standing to assert a counterclaim covering the period of time when the prior beneficiary of the trust was alive, and did defendant state a cognizable claim under the Prudent Investor Act ["PIA"], N.J.S.A. 3B:20-11.1 to -11.12?"...

The 2,500th Post on This Blog: Appellate Division Oral Argument of the Week- Need Rutgers University Obtain State Approval Before Offering Its Academic Programming to Students?

On Tuesday, September 29, judges on the Appellate Division's Part D will hear oral argument in In the Matter of the Applicability of Certain Statutes and Regulations to Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. The issue is whether New Jersey's Secretary of Higher Education wrongly determined that Rutgers is obligated to comply with regulations promulgated by the Secretary in 2022 that require colleges and universities subject to the Secretary's jurisdiction to go through a process of having their programmatic decisions approved by the Secretary....

Attorneys' Fees and Attorney Disqualification Appeals Reach the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in two new matters. One of them involves a grant of certification, while the other is before the Court on the grant of leave to appeal....