NJ Appellate Law Blog

New Jersey Wins on Sports Betting in the U.S. Supreme Court

Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, 138 S.Ct. 1461 (2018). This blog has covered the history of the State of New Jersey's efforts to overcome the Professional and Amateur Sports...

Allocation Among Multiple Defendants of Attorneys' Fees Under Fee-Shifting Statutes

Empower our Neighborhoods v. Guadagno, 453 N.J. Super. 565 (App. Div. 2018). This was an election case under the federal and New Jersey civil rights acts, both of which provide...

Which Appellate Deadlines Are Jurisdictional?

Hamer v. Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, 138 S.Ct. 13 (2017). In Bowles v. Russell, 551 U.S. 205 (2007), the Supreme Court of the United States explained that an appeal...

The Effect of United States Supreme Court Dicta

Coleman v. Superintendent Greene SCI, 845 F.3d 73 (3d Cir. 2017). Today, Judge Hardiman, writing for the Third Circuit in a habeas corpus case, addressed the weight to be given...

Editorial: Tomorrow is Election Day

Tomorrow is Election Day. This election presents one of the most consequential choices between major party candidates for President of the United States that this nation has ever seen. When...

Donald Trump Offers More Potential Supreme Court Nominees

Back in May, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump announced a list of eleven potential nominees to the Supreme Court of the United States. As discussed here, one of those candidates,...

A "Bleak House" for the 21st Century- Chavez v. Dole Food Co.

Chavez v. Dole Food Co., 836 F.3d 205 (3d Cir. 2016). In the classic Charles Dickens book "Bleak House," the legal case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce ran for so many...

"Humpty Dumpty" and Recalling a Discharged Jury

Dietz v. Bouldin, 136 S. Ct. 1885 (2016). When a judge discharges a jury in a civil case, and only thereafter realizes that the jury verdict contains an error, is...

When a Bus Company Won a Constitutional Challenge to a Tax, But Still Lost

Thiry years ago today, the Supreme Court decided Continental Trailways, Inc. v. Director, Div. of Motor Vehicles, 102 N.J. 526 (1986). Trailways, a large bus company, sued to declare New Jersey's...

Judge Hardiman on Trump's Supreme Court Short List

Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump had promised months ago to announce a "short list" of his potential United States Supreme Court nominees. Especially in recent days, conservatives concerned about...

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The Second and Third Published Appellate Division Decisions of the Current Term

As September turned to October, the Appellate Division issued its second and third published opinions of the Term. One was a decision by Judge Vinci in a civil appeal. The other ruling, in a criminal appeal, was authored by Judge Perez Friscia....

Appellate Division Oral Argument of the Week: Did it Violate a Class Action Settlement That Barred Mass Opt-Outs to Allow Opt-Outs From a Marketing Campaign That Solicited Opt-outs?

On Tuesday, September 30, judges on Part G of the Appellate Division will hear oral argument in Esposito v. Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless. The case follows from a $100 million nationwide class action settlement that had required class members who decided to exclude themselves from the settlement and potentially pursue their own litigation against Verizon to opt out individually, and barred mass opt-outs. However, Murphy Advocates, LLC, a Colorado law firm conducted a marketing campaign to create a mass opt-out that attracted about 11,000 class members who responded to Murphy that they wished to opt out....

A Pair of New Criminal Appeals for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in two new cases. Both are criminal appeals. One is from a published opinion of the Appellate Division, while the other is from an unpublished per curiam decision by a three-judge panel....

Can a Plaintiff in a Civil Case Refuse to Testify at Trial After Being Served With a Defense Notice in Lieu of Subpoena and Having Been Ordered to Testify by the Trial Judge? An Anniversary

On this date in 2005, the Supreme Court decided Gonzalez v. Safe & Sound Sec. Corp., 185 N.J. 100 (2005). The case involved a plaintiff who was shot in an apartment building in Atlantic City, which left him paralyzed. He brought a negligence suit against a number of defendants, including Atlantic City Housing & Urban Renewal Associates ("ACHURA"), the owner of the apartment building....