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

Seton Hall Law School Women's Law Forum Honors Judge Wefing

Tonight, I was privileged to attend an event at which the Seton Hall Law School's Women's Law Forum honored Judge Wefing with its "Women of Substance" award. Approximately 150 people...

A Wise Application of the Supreme Court's Directives Regarding Awards of Attorneys' Fees

Grow Company, Inc. v. Chokshi, 424 N.J. Super. 357 (App. Div. 2012). This is yet another in what seems to be an endless stream of appeals of awards of attorneys' fees. That...

Abraham Lincoln: "A Lawyer's Word is His Bond"

Today, February 13, 2012, New Jersey's state courts are closed in observance of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln exactly 203 years ago yesterday. Leaving aside a Supreme Court of New Jersey...

Judges May Not Enter Final Judgment and Defer Their Opinions and Reasons Until Later

Ducey v. Ducey, 424 N.J. Super. 80 (App. Div. 2012). After a fourteen-day trial, a Family Part judge entered a judgment of divorce and stated that "the underlying opinion will be sent shortly."...

Five New Temporary Assignments to the Appellate Division

Effective January 23, 2012, and continuing through April 13, 2012, Judge Allison Accurso, who had been the Presiding Judge, General Equity, Somerset County, has been temporarily assigned to Part C of the...

A Unique Experience Before the Supreme Court of New Jersey

Today, I had the pleasure of arguing an important case involving choice of law, statute of limitations, and federal preemption issues before the Court. But only one Justice, Justice Lavecchia,...

"What's in a Name?"

Emma v. Evans, 424 N.J. Super. 36 (App. Div. 2012). The title of this post is, unsurprisingly, not my own creation. It is the first line of this opinion by Judge Fisher,...

Senator Menendez Endorses Judge Shwartz

On Friday, the same day that he held his promised second meeting with Judge Shwartz, Senator Menendez announced that he was now supporting her nomination to the Third Circuit Court...

District Judges Sitting by Designation on Circuit Courts of Appeal

Last week's decision in the Diamond Antitrust case, where an en banc Third Circuit undid a 2-1 panel decision in which a district judge, sitting by designation, was one of the members of...

Jury Homework

State v. Morgan, 423 N.J. Super. 453 (App. Div. 2011). Rule 1:8-8(a) states that a trial court, "in its discretion, may submit a copy of all or part of its instructions to...

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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....