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

The "Tender Years" Hearsay Exception

State of New Jersey in the Interest of A.R., 447 N.J. Super. 485 (App. Div. 2016). Judge Sabatino teaches at Rutgers-Camden Law School. Students there pay to be educated by...

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...

Supreme Court Will Review A Megan's Law Case and Another Criminal Matter

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review (one on a motion for leave to appeal and one on a petition for certification) in two more criminal cases. In...

Three More Cases for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that three more cases have been added to its docket. State v. Carrero, Jr. is before the Court by virtue of a dissent in the Appellate...

Catching Up With Supreme Court Grants of Review

I've missed a lot of days in the last several weeks. The Supreme Court, however, has been active. The Court announced grants of review in the following cases: In Lee...

Three New Grants of Certification

The Supreme Court has announced that it has granted review in three new cases. The cases are an interesting assortment. In State v. Burkett, a criminal case, the question presented,...

The Supreme Court Will Review a Family Law Case and a Search Warrant Case

The Supreme Court has announced that it has granted review in two cases. The first matter, Bisbing v. Bisbing, arises out of the Family Part. The Appellate Divsiion's decision, reported...

Third Circuit Forms a Task Force on Eyewitness Identifications

Chief Judge McKee has announced the formation of a Task Force on Eyewitness Identifications. This seventeen-member body will be co-chaired by Chief Judge McKee and Judge Mitchell Goldberg of the United...

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...

The Supreme Court's Busy August

In the last ten days, the Supreme Court, nearing the end of its term, has issued a number of opinions. It has been hard to keep up with them all....

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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....