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

Court Rules Judge Clarkson Fisher Judge Douglas Wolfson Judge Garry Rothstadt Judge Marianne Espinosa

The Supreme Court of New Jersey Committee on Character evaluates applicants to the New Jersey Bar for their current character and fitness to practice law. [Disclosure: I was a member...

The 1,000th Post: A Rare Published Affirmance on the Opinion Below

In re Adoption of Monroe Tp. Housing Element and Fair Share Plan, 442 N.J. Super. 563 (App. Div. 2015). Many intermediate appellate courts frequently issue opinions that affirm on the...

Summary Action to "Enforce Agency Orders" Cannot Proceed Where Agency Has Not Ordered Specific Relief

Bacon v. New Jersey State Dep't of Education, 443 N.J. Super. 24 (App. Div. 2015). Many of us know about so-called "Abbott school districts," districts in economically distressed urban areas...

A Lesson in the Commonality and Predominance Criteria of Federal Rule 23

Reyes v. Netdeposit, LLC, 802 F.3d 469 (3d Cir. 2015). Sometimes things slip through the cracks. This opinion by Chief Judge McKee was issued on September 2, but only now...

Another Attempt to Compel Arbitration Based on Inadequate and Unclear Documents Fails

Barr v. Bishop Rosen & Co., Inc., 442 N.J. Super. 599 (App. Div. 2015). Both before and after Atalese v. U.S. Legal Servs. Grp., L.P., 219 N.J. 430 (2014), cert....

Contingent Notices of Appeal and Other Appellate Jurisdiction Puzzles

Witasick v. Minnesota Mutual Life Ins. Co., 803 F.3d 184 (3d Cir. 2015). This was an insurance coverage case. It had a lengthy procedural history, one that implicated criminal as...

OPRA Plaintiff Cannot Proceed Anonymously

A.A. v. Gramiccioni, 442 N.J. Super. 276 (App. Div. 2015). It is unusual for a plaintiff to be permitted to use only initials in filing a complaint. As Judge Simonelli...

New Guidelines for Emergent Applications in the Appellate Division

In a Notice to the Bar issued today, which is available here, Judge Messano announced new guidelines for emergent applications in the Appellate Division. Those guidelines will take effect on...

2015 Omnibus Rule Amendment Order Contains One Appellate Rule Change

The Supreme Court has published its 2015 Omnibus Rule Amendment Order, which is available here. That Order contains amendments to several dozen Court Rules and appendices, and also adds new...

The Third Circuit Upholds Class Certification in a Long-Running Case

In re Community Bank of Northern Virginia Mortgage Lending Practices Litigation, 795 F.3d 380 (3d Cir. 2015). Every five years, the Third Circuit issues an opinion on class certification in...

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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....