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

Proofs and Defenses in Collection Cases

New Century Financial Services, Inc. v. Oughla, 437 N.J. Super. 299 (App. Div. 2014). This case encompassed two consolidated collection cases. Opposing counsel in these matters regularly face off against...

Proposed Amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure

The Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States has proposed amendments to various sets of federal procedural rules. The entire set of...

A Warning to Appellate Lawyers From Judge Fuentes

Walters v. YMCA, 437 N.J. Super. 111 (App. Div. 2014). This decision by Judge Fuentes, issued today, reverses a grant of summary judgment in favor of the YMCA in what...

Supreme Court Guideline Barring Lawyers From Posting Accurate Quotes From Judges on Law Firm Websites is Invalid

Dwyer v. Cappell, 762 F.3d 275 (3d Cir. 2014). Andrew Dwyer is a lawyer who handles plaintiffs' employment law litigation. Evidently, some judges have said favorable things about him in...

Supreme Court Announces Court Rule Amendments Effective September 1, 2014

The Supreme Court today published Court Rule amendments that (except for certain changes that will take effect on January 1, 2015) that will become effective on September 1, 2014. Those amendments...

Amending the Evidence Rules

State v. Savoy, 218 N.J. 224 (2014). Under Article VI, section 2, paragraph 3 of the New Jersey Constitution, the Supreme Court has plenary power to "make rules governing the...

Clearing the Way for Pro Bono Assistance to Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Filers

In re Opinion No. 17-2012 of the Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics, 220 N.J. 468 (2014). Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the most common resource of indigent individuals who must file...

Noisy Neighbors as a Nuisance

Traetto v. Palazzo, 436 N.J. Super. 6 (App. Div. 2014). Plaintiff sought to enjoin defendants, her next-door neighbors, from allowing their son to play the drums in defendants' detached garage....

No Constitutional Right to Have "Ability to Pay" Experts Appointed at Public Expense

Schochet v. Schochet, 435 N.J. Super. 542 (App. Div. 2014). In Pasqua v. Council, 186 N.J. 127 (2006), the Supreme Court ruled that "the appointment of counsel to assist parents...

Two Interesting Wrinkles on Waiver (or Non-Waiver) of Issues Purportedly Not Raised Below

Thompson v. Real Estate Mortgage Network, 748 F.3d 142 (3d Cir. 2014). This opinion, issued today by Judge Vanaskie, is an important one in that it clarifies the pleading standards...

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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....