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

Welcome to the 21st Century! Playbacks of Testimony in Videotaped Trials

State v. Miller, 205 N.J. 79 (2011). Today, live court reporters are rare in state courts. Most courtrooms rely on video or audio recording of trials instead. The issue in this multi-count...

All Five Women Supreme Court Justices Speak

Imagine that someone assembled Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant to discuss how to win NBA championships. The parallel to such a gathering, for those interested...

Professor Williams Speaks on "The New Jersey Supreme Court's Independence Under Fire"

Professor Robert Williams, Distinguished Professor of Law at Rutgers-Camden School of Law, was the speaker at the 22nd annual Alice Sofis Evangelides Lecture at the Eagleton Institute of Rutgers University,...

Four Judges Temporarily Assigned to the Appellate Division

Chief Justice Rabner has appointed four trial level judges to the Appellate Division on a temporary basis. Judge Patricia B. Roe, who sits in the Family Part, Ocean County, has been...

No Right to Bring Damage Suit for Insurer's Refusal to Obey Compensation Judge's Order

Stancil v. ACE USA, 418 N.J. Super. 79 (App. Div. 2011). A series of articles in The Star-Ledger in April 2008 exposed a pervasive problem of insurance companies flouting the orders of...

Some Lessons About Motions for Reconsideration

Nead v. Union Cty. Educ. Servs. Comm'n, 2011 WL 166205 (App. Div. Jan. 20, 2011). This case, which resulted in a reversal of a trial court's decision to dismiss an employment discrimination case, teaches several things...

The Uses of Unpublished Opinions

Division of Youth & Family Services v. M.D., 417 N.J. Super. 583 (App. Div. 2011). This lengthy opinion by Judge Messano focuses on what information counsel must provide to a defendant who...

Justice Rivera-Soto Says Farewell

Today, Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto notified Governor Christie that he did not wish to be reappointed to the Supreme Court when his seven-year initial term ends later this year. Justice Rivera-Soto...

Citing Unpublished Rulings? Attach Them!

In re Trusts to be Established in the Matter of the Estate of Margaret A. Flood, Deceased, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2010). The holding of this case was...

Justices Behaving Badly

Henry v. New Jersey Dep't of Human Services, 204 N.J. 320 (2010), and Johnson v. Johnson, 204 N.J. 529 (2010). These two decisions will not be remembered for the facts or holdings of the...

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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....