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

The Seventh Circuit Rejects Carrera Ascertainability, and Cites Judge Fisher With Approval

Regular readers of this blog have seen frequent criticism of the class action "ascertainability" doctrine espoused by Carrera v. Bayer Corp., 727 F.3d 300 (3d Cir. 2013). Recently, as discussed...

"Retired and on Recall" Superior Court Judges are Constitutional, Supreme Court Says in State v. Buckner

State v. Buckner, 223 N.J. 1 (2015). In one of the biggest cases of the current the Supreme Court term, the Court today upheld the practice of permitting retired judges...

Prudent Practitioners Prune Points on Appeal

The point has often been made, including here and here, that appellants' briefs are best off if they focus on the few best arguments available, rather than raising every conceivable...

Land Use Litigant Cannot "Make a Mockery of the Exhaustion Doctrine"

Casser v. Knowlton Tp., 441 N.J. Super. 353 (App. Div. 2015). Two consolidated cases, three Law Division judges who had pieces of these matters, and a lengthy and convoluted procedural...

The Appellate Division Lineup for 2015-16

Chief Justice Rabner has issued the General Assignment Order for 2015-16. The full Order, whose assignments take effect on September 1, 2015, can be viewed here. As far as the Appellate Division...

Senate Bill Would Create Title of "Acting Justice"

By a 22-16 vote, the Senate passed and sent to the Assembly a bill known as S-2515. An identical bill, A-3269, has been introduced in the Assembly. That legislation would...

Judges Currier and Gilson are Elevated to the Appellate Division

Chief Justice Rabner announced yesterday that Judges Currier and Gilson will be elevated to the Appellate Division, effective on August 1, 2015. Both of those judges had been temporarily assigned...

Judges Changing Their Minds

Yesterday's New York Times Magazine contained an article titled "Better Judgment." The article discussed instances in which famous appellate jurists, including Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Judge Richard Posner of the...

The Appellate Division Rejects Ascertainability as a Class Action Criterion, and Changes the Rules for Interlocutory Appeals of Class Certification Decisions

Daniels v. Hollister Co., 440 N.J. Super. 359 (App. Div. 2015). Readers of this blog have gotten their fill (including, most recently, here and here) of discussion and analysis of...

Appellate Division Summer Part Schedule is Announced

Today, in a Notice to the Bar that can be found here, the schedule of summer parts of the Appellate Division was announced. Each pairing of two judges (or, in...

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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....