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

Retroactive Application of Sex Offender Monitoring Act Violates Ex Post Facto Clauses

Today's post is another guest post by Jeffrey A. Shooman, my colleague at Lite DePalma Greenberg, LLC. Riley v. New Jersey State Parole Bd., 219 N.J. 270 (2014). In a...

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 Says Hoboken City Clerk Violated New Jersey Civil Rights Act

Tumpson v. Farina, 218 N.J. 450 (2014). [Disclosure: Victor A. Afanador and Jeffrey A. Shooman, my colleagues at Lite DePalma Greenberg, LLC, represented the municipal defendants in this case]. The Appellate Division in...

Unemployment Benefits for Employee Fired Due to Refusal, for Secular Reasons, to be Vaccinated Against the Flu

Valent v. Board of Review, 436 N.J. Super. 41 (App. Div. 2014). June Valent is a registered nurse who worked at Hackettstown Community Hospital. In order to minimize the incidence of...

A Third Party's Consent to a Warrantless Search is Not Constitutionally Valid Where Police Could Have Gotten Consent Directly From Defendant

This is another guest post by Jeffrey A. Shooman, my colleague at Lite DePalma Greenberg, LLC: State v. Coles, 217 N.J. 467 (2014). Sergeant Zsakhiem James of the Camden Police...

Recall of Post-Age 70 Retired Superior Court Judges is Constitutional

State v. Buckner, 437 N.J. Super. 8 (App. Div. 2014). The issue of whether mandatory retirement of judges at age 70 is constitutional was discussed here. (As an aside, the Supreme Court ....

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...

Like a Bad Penny

Some dubious legislation, like a bad penny, keeps coming back on the scene. For a number of years, a bill that would allow appeals as of right of orders granting...

The New Jersey Wiretapping Act is Held Constitutional

Today's post is a guest post by Victor N. Metallo, MAE, MBA, JD, Adj. Professor of Business Law, Montclair State University In State v. Ates, 213 N.J. 389 (2014), the...

The Supreme Court Grants COAH's Motion for an Extension of Time to Promulgate Third Round Rules

Today witnessed the latest event in the ongoing saga regarding third round rules for low and moderate-income housing to be adopted by the Council on Affordable Housing ("COAH"). As discussed...

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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....