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

A Violation of a Regulation Can be "Knowing" Even if There is No Judicial Decision Saying So at the Time of the Conduct at Issue

Allstate Ins. Co. v. Northfield Medical Center, P.C., 228 N.J. 596 (2017). After a bench trial, defendants were found to have violated the Insurance Fraud Prevention Act, N.J.S.A. 17:33A-1 to...

Another New Justice is Launched: Justice Timpone's First Opinion

State v. Bryant, 227 N.J. 60 (2016). As has been noted before, a new Justice's first opinion is customarily a unanimous one in a relatively uncomplicated case. Today, Justice Timpone...

The Fugitive Disentitlement Doctrine

Matison v. Lisnyansky, 443 N.J. Super. 549 (App. Div. 2016). This opinion by Judge Koblitz today, which dismisses the appeal, is one of the shortest published Appellate Division decision that...

State v. Czachor

Thirty five years ago today, the Supreme Court decided State v. Czachor, 82 N.J. 392 (1980). In an opinion by Justice Handler, the Court revolutionized the criminal law by abandoning...

Criminal Charges Against an Employee Who Steals Her Employer's Documents to Aid in Her Separate Employment Discrimination Suit

This post is by my colleague Jeffrey A. Shooman. He discusses an important criminal law decision that the Appellate Division issued today. State v. Saavedra, 433 N.J. Super. 501 (App. Div. 2013). At...

A Primer About the Attorney-Client Privilege

Hedden v. Kean University, 434 N.J. Super. 1 (App. Div. 2013). This interlocutory appeal, which resulted in a 2-1 decision by the Appellate Division, involved issues of attorney-client privilege. In an...

Criminal Defendant Can Present Expert Testimony as to Voluntariness or Reliability of His Confession

The first substantive post of this fourth year of this blog is another guest post on a criminal law decision by my colleague Jeffrey A. Shooman, another member of my...

The Third Circuit Speaks About Rule 404(b) "Prior Bad Act" Evidence

Here is another guest post from Jeffrey A. Shooman, who was then my colleague at Lite DePalma Greenberg, LLC, on an important criminal law decision of the Third Circuit: United...

"Courting Justice: 10 New Jersey Cases That Shook the Nation"

Yesterday's Star-Ledger contained a review of this book, which is edited by Paul L. Tractenberg and published by Rutgers University Press. That review is available here. According to the review, the...

The Appellate Division Announces a New Right to Counsel in Certain Post-Conviction Relief Proceedings

State v. Quixal, 431 N.J. Super. 502 (App. Div. 2013). Today's post is a guest post by Jeffrey A. Shooman, one of my colleagues in the Appellate Practice Group at Lite DePalma...

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"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....

The "Castle Doctrine"

State v. Bragg, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). A jury found defendant guilty of twelve charged counts, including attempted murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, endangering, and two lesser-included offenses of harassment. Some of those charges involved the use of deadly force. Persons may not use deadly force if the can retreat with complete safety. But under the "castle doctrine," an exception to the general rule, a person "is not obliged to retreat from his dwelling, unless he was the initial aggressor." N.J.S.A. 2C:3-4(b)(2)(b)(i). That doctrine derives from the common law....

No Arbitrariness in Rejection of Public Construction Bid That Failed to Include a Properly Signed, Required Consent of Surety

In the Matter of Protest Filed by El Sol Contracting and Construction Corp., Contract T100.638, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). This public bidding case resulted in a 5-2 split at the Supreme Court, the first non-unanimous ruling of the current Term. Justice Hoffman wrote the majority opinion, while Justice Fasciale authored the dissent for himself and Justice Pierre-Louis....