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

Unemployment Benefits, Suppression of Evidence, and the Alleged Improper Exercise of Peremptory Challenges Based on Race Come Before the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in two more cases. The first, Blake v. Board of Review, was discussed here. Since the Court had previously granted review...

Digging Out

This past Monday, I argued two appeals in the Supreme Court of New Jersey. They were the Accutane matters discussed and . In the period leading up to those arguments,...

Four More Criminal Cases for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced this afternoon that it has granted certification in four new cases, all criminal matters. Here is the summary. In State v. Nelson, the question presented, as...

The Supreme Court Adds Two More Criminal Appeals

The Supreme Court announced two more criminal cases that have been added to its calendar. One is there by virtue of a dissent in the Appellate Division, while the Court...

The Latest Grants of Supreme Court Review: Life Insurance (Another Certified Question), Unemployment Compensation, Parental Rights, and Parole Ineligibility

The Supreme Court announced four more cases that will come before it. The subject matters, and the paths that the cases took to reach the Court, are quite varied. Sun...

Another Expedited Criminal Appeal for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted review in State v. Hyppolite. The question presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk's Office, is "Did the State withhold...

The Last Few Weeks, Part 2

Last week, the Supreme Court announced that it had granted certification in five more cases. Three of them are criminal appeals, one involves additur after a jury verdict, and one...

Another Certified Question Case From the Third Circuit, and Another Criminal Appeal, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it will take up two more matters. One is a certified question from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in a consumer protection context, specifically,...

The Latest Grants of Review by the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in three more cases. One of them is yet another case under the Open Public records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq....

Another Suppression of Evidence Appeal Gets to the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in State v. Roundtree. The question presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk's office, is "Did the police officers initially...

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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....