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

A Unanimous Three-Judge Panel Opinion, With a Unanimous Concurrence by the Same Three Judges. Huh??

Lincoln Benefit Life Co. v. AEI Life, LLC, 800 F.3d 99 (3d Cir. 2015). For a single judge on a three-judge Third Circuit panel to issue a concurring opinion is...

A Rebuttal on Equitable Mootness

In re Tribune Media Company, 799 F.3d 272 (3d Cir. 2015). Roughly one month ago, Judge Krause authored a powerful concurring opinion in In re One2One Communications, LLC, 805 F.3d...

"Retired and on Recall" Superior Court Judges are Constitutional, Supreme Court Says in State v. Buckner

State v. Buckner, 223 N.J. 1 (2015). In one of the biggest cases of the current the Supreme Court term, the Court today upheld the practice of permitting retired judges...

Employee's Comparative Negligence in Workplace Accident Case Can be Submitted to the Jury

Fernandes v. DAR Development Corp., 222 N.J. 390 (2015). Kane v. Hartz Mountain Industries, Inc., 278 N.J. Super. 129 (App. Div.1994), aff'd o.b., 143 N.J. 141 (1996), ruled that the...

Will the Third Circuit Abrogate Equitable Mootness?

In re One2One Communications, LLC, 805 F.3d 428 (3d Cir. 2015). This post about In re Semicrude, L.P., 728 F.3d 314 (3d Cir. 2013), which discussed the bankruptcy doctrine of...

Debt Collector Has the Burden of Proving Its Right to Invoke an Exception to the FDCPA

Evankavitch v. Green Tree Servicing, LLC, 793 F.3d 355 (3d Cir. 2015). "[A]bsent compelling reasons to the contrary, a party seeking shelter in an exception to the statute has the...

Consequential Damages Caused by Construction Subcontractor's Defective Work Were "Property Damage" and an "Occurrence" Under CGL Insurance Policy

Cypress Point Condominium Ass'n, Inc. v. Adria Towers, LLC, 441 N.J. Super. 369 (App. Div. 2015). A condominium association sued multiple parties, including insurers under commercial general liability ("CGL") insurance...

False Statement Under Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Must be Material to be Actionable

Jensen v. Pressler & Pressler, 791 F.3d 413 (3d Cir. 2015). Plaintiff defaulted on a credit card debt. The debt was sold, and the buyer attempted to collect on it....

The Anniversary of Sinclair v. Merck

On this date in 2008, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Sinclair v. Merck & Co., Inc., 195 N.J. 51 (2008). In that case, a majority of the Court,...

Under ERISA, "Some Success," Even Via Settlement, Permits an Attorneys' Fee Award

Templin v. Independence Blue Cross, 785 F.3d 861 (3d Cir. 2015). "A party seeking attorney's fees under ERISA [the Employees Retirement Income Security Act] must show ‘some success' on the...

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The Last Seven Days

The last seven days, an especially busy period for me, featured one Supreme Court opinion and two published Appellate Division decisions. Here are summaries of those rulings:...

No Ethics Violation in Attorney Purchasing Another Attorney's Name as a Keyword for Internet Searches, the Supreme Court Says, With a Caveat

In re Opinion No. 735 of the Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). [Disclosure: I represented an amicus curiae in this appeal]. As Justice Noriega said in his opinion for a 5-1 majority (Justice Pierre-Louis did not participate), this appeal "presents the narrow question of whether it is permissible under the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC) for an attorney or law firm to purchase a competing attorney's or law firm's name as a keyword." The Court found it permissible, with a caveat. Justice Fasciale dissented....

Four Criminal Law Cases, and a Qui Tam Appeal, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted review in five new appeals. One of them is before the Court on leave to appeal, while in the others the Court granted certification....

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....