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

A Section 1292(b) Appeal on an Employment Discrimination Issue

Carroll v. Delaware River Port Authority, 843 F.3d 129 (3d Cir. 2016). 28 U.S.C. §1292(b) permits a District Court to certify a question of law to a Court of Appeals...

The Legislative Review Clause of the New Jersey Constitution

Communication Workers of America, AFL-CIO v. New Jersey Civil Service Comm'n, 447 N.J. Super. 584 (App. Div. 2016). Article V, section 4, paragraph 6 of the New Jersey Constitution, approved...

An Intervention Dispute: Is a Denial of a Motion to Intervene Immediately Appealable?

HUNY & BH Associates v. Silberberg, 447 N.J. Super. 606 (App. Div. 2016). This 2-1 decision of the Appellate Division, issued today, is a rare published opinion on a motion...

Fiscal Emergencies Alone Do Not Permit Public Employers to Adversely Affect Employee Compensation in Violation of Collective Bargaining Agreements

In re Robbinsville Tp. Bd. of Educ. v. Washington Tp. Educ. Ass'n, 227 N.J. 192 (2016). In Borough of Keyport v. International Union of Operating Engineers, 222 N.J. 314 (2015),...

Grandparent Visitation Redux

Slawinski v. Nicholas, 448 N.J. Super. 25 (App. Div. 2016). There are a surprising number of published New Jersey cases in the family context regarding grandparent visitation of grandchildren. Examples...

Certain Frivolous Litigation Sanctions are Reversed, But One Such Sanction is Affirmed

Tagayun v. AmeriChoice of New Jersey, Inc., 446 N.J. Super. 570 (App. Div. 2016). As Judge Higbee noted in her opinion for the Appellate Division today, Rule 1:4-8 or N.J.S.A....

Municipal Ban on Digital Billboards is Unconstitutional

E&J Equities v. Franklin Tp. Bd. of Adj. , 226 N.J. 549 (2016). Billboards are not everyone's favorite thing. Many view them as a blot on the landscape (and not...

Savings as a Component of Alimony

Lombardi v. Lombardi, 447 N.J. Super. 26 (App. Div. 2016). "[A]limony is neither a punishment for the payor nor a reward for the payee…. It is a right arising out...

No Waiver of Arbitration Clause Even After Years of Litigation, Because Arbitration Demand, Pre-AT&T v. Concepcion, Would Have Been Futile

Chassen v. Fidelity Nat'l Financial, Inc., 836 F.3d 291 (3d Cir. 2016). [Disclosure: I was an expert witness for plaintiffs in this case, but my Declaration and deposition testimony was...

Bridgegate Unindicted Co-Conspirator List Will Remain Private, at Least for Now

North Jersey Media Group Inc. v. United States, 836 F.3d 421 (3d Cir. 2016). The 2013 closure of lanes at the George Washington Bridge, which led to extraordinary traffic backups...

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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....

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....

"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....