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

Preliminary Approvals of Class Action Settlements Cannot be Appealed Under Rule 23(f)

In re National Football League Players Concussion Injury Litigation, 775 F.3d 570 (3d Cir. 2014). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f) states that "[a] court of appeals may permit an...

A "Bright-Line Directive": Post-Verdict, Ex Parte Communications Between a Judge and Jury Are Always Forbidden

Davis v. Husain, 220 N.J. 270 (2014). "Post-verdict ex parte communication between the trial court and jurors cannot be countenanced." That is the holding of today's opinion, for a unanimous Supreme...

With Ironies Abounding, the United States Supreme Court Rules on Removal Under CAFA

Dart Cherokee Basin Operating Co., LLC v. Owens, ___ U.S. ___ (2014). This case reached a fairly simple conclusion: a notice of removal that removes to federal court a putative...

The Rent Control Trilogy

On this date thirty-nine years ago, the Supreme Court decided three seminal rent conrol cases, which have come to be known as the "rent control trilogy." Troy Hills Village v....

Immunity for Actions of Hospital Internal Review Committees

Hurwitz v. AHS Hospital Corp., 438 N.J. Super. 269 (App. Div. 2014). The Healthcare Quality Improvement Act of 1986 ("HCQIA"), 42 U.S.C. §§11111-11112, creates an immunity from damages claims arising...

No Sufficient Findings Below, So No Appellate Ruling on Constitutional Challenge to Advance Voter Registration Statute

Rutgers University Student Assembly v. Middlesex Cty. Bd. of Elections, 438 N.J. Super. 93 (App. Div. 2014). Plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of N.J.S.A. 19:31-6.3b, which, as Judge Haas described it...

A "Tail" Insurance Tale

Mortgage Grader, Inc. v. Ward & Olivo, LLP, 438 N.J. Super. 202 (App. Div. 2014). In the legal malpractice context, a "tail" insurance policy is one that "provides insurance coverage for malpractice...

The Courier Font

Rule 2:6-10, which addresses the format of appellate briefs, states (among other things) that Supreme Court of New Jersey and Appellate Division briefs "shall contain no more than 26 double-spaced lines...

"Adverse Inference" Jury Charges Regarding Failure to Call an Expert Witness to Testify

Washington v. Perez, 219 N.J. 338 (2014). Under certain circumstances, a party is entitled to a charge that permits a jury to draw an adverse inference from an opposing party's failure to...

Last Night's MCBA Appellate Practice Seminar: A Big Hit

Last night, the Morris County Bar Association presented "New Jersey Appellate Practice: Tips from the Bench and Bar." The program and participants were discussed here. Roughly 125 people attended, and...

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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....