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

Fox Rothschild Case, and Two Criminal Appeals, Come to the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in three cases. Two of them are criminal matters. The third involves a claim against the Fox Rothschild law firm on...

An Earthquake in DWI Law?

State v. Cassidy, 235 N.J. 482 (2018). This unanimous opinion by Justice Timpone adopted the extensive opinion of a Special Master, retired Appellate Division Judge Lisa, on the subject of...

The Supreme Court Will Address "Not Raised Below," and Three Criminal Appeals

The Supreme Court has announced that it has granted certification in three cases, all criminal matters, and that a civil case will be before it on an appeal as of...

The Supreme Court Adds to Its Criminal Docket (Plus a Tort Case)

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted review in four more cases. Three of those are criminal appeals. The fourth is a tort case relating to a residential...

Another Consumer Arbitration Clause Case, and a Criminal Appeal, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has granted certification in two new cases. The first is yet another matter involving whether and when consumer disputes can be forced into arbitration. That case (actually,...

The First Two Supreme Court Grants of Review of the New Term

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in two cases. These are the first grants (Nos. A-1 and A-2) of the current Term. The first appeal is Garden...

The Supreme Court Takes Up Two More Criminal Cases and a Spill Act Appeal

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted certification in three more cases. Two of those are criminal appeals, each involving sentencing issues. The third case presents an issue...

Two More Criminal Cases for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it will review two more cases. Both are criminal appeals in which the Court granted certification. In State v. McNeil-Thomas, the question presented, as phrased...

The Supreme Court Will Take Up a DNA Case

The Supreme Court has added one more case to its docket. That case is State v. Camey, in which the Court granted leave to appeal. The question presented, as phrased...

Another Criminal Case, and Two Cases Involving Civil Claims by Police Officers, Will Get Supreme Court Review

The Supreme Court has announced that it has granted review in three more cases. Two of them resulted from unpublished Appellate Division rulings in cases where police officers are the...

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Retired Policeman's Pension Benefits Were Wrongly Paid to His Estranged Spouse Rather Than to His Estate, Where He Had Not Designated Anyone to Receive the Pension Benefit if He Died

Isaac v. Board of Trustees, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Two kinds of benefits are payable to retired members of the.Police and Firemen's Retirement System ("PFRS"). One is a pension benefit, a part of the member's compensation for past services. Pension benefits go to the person whom the member designates, or to the member's estate if no designation is made. The other is a survivor's benefit, which goes to the member's widow for the duration of his or her widowhood. Former Newark policeman Keith Isaac made no designation as to his pension benefits, though he did list his estranged wife, Roxanne, as his spouse when he filed for retirement. Based on that, Isaac's pension benefits were distributed to Roxanne. Isaac's estate contested that, and today the Supreme Court held that the estate should have gotten the pension monies....

The Supreme Court Clarifies New Jersey's Automobile Exception to the Requirement of a Search Warrant

State v. Fenimore, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Both the United States and New Jersey Constitutions protect the people against "unreasonable searches and seizures" and prohibit the issuance of search warrants without "probable cause." Both federal and New Jersey law, however, recognize an "automobile exception" to the warrant requirement. But New Jersey's automobile exception is narrower than the federal exception, as the Supreme Court stated in State v. Witt, 223 N.J. 409 (2015). Today, the Supreme Court ruled that the Appellate Division in this case had interpreted Witt too broadly in reversing a Law Division decision to exclude evidence from a warrantless search. The Supreme Court reversed and excluded the evidence....

"Liberal Standards" for Standing "Are Not Equivalent to No Standards At All," the Supreme Court Says

New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers, Inc. v. Ford Motor Co., ___ N.J. ___ (2025). As Justice Pierre-Louis observed in her opinion for a unanimous Court in this case today, New Jersey state courts have long "take[n] a more liberal approach to standing than federal law." But in this appeal, the statute sued upon, the Franchise Practices Act, N.J.S.A. 56:10-1 et seq. ("FPA"), stated that only a "franchisee" could sue its franchisor. Because plaintiff here ("NJCAR") was not a franchisee but an association of franchisees, NJCAR lacked standing to bring a FPA case....

Compassionate Release Act Does Not Require Physical Examination of Inmates Seeking Relief, But Denial of Relief in This Case Was Arbitrary and Capricious

M.R. v. New Jersey Department of Corrections, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Plaintiff appealed the denial of his petition for release under the Compassionate Release Act, N.J.S.A. 30:4-123.51 ("CRA"). He argued that he had not been physically examined by a physician, and that the statute required a physical examination. The Appellate Division determined that the statute did not require a physical examination and upheld the denial of compassionate release. Today, in a unanimous opinion by Justice Hoffman, the Supreme Court agreed that no physical examination was required, but reversed the denial of compassionate relief as insupportable....