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

A Practical Interpretation of the Statute Banning Concealment or Obscuring Markings on Automobile License Plates

State v. Carter, ___ N.J. ___ (2021); State v. Roman-Rosado, ___ N.J. ___ (2021). These two consolidated appeals, in which Chief Justice Rabner authored a unanimous opinion issued today, dealt...

Justice LaVecchia Postpones Her Retirement

As discussed here, Justice LaVecchia announced on March 8 that she intended to retire from the Supreme Court as of August 31 of this year. In the ordinary course, that...

Two Rulings in Criminal Cases by the Supreme Court

State v. Szemple, ___ N.J ___ (2021); J.K. v. New Jersey State Parole Bd., ___ N.J. ___ (2021). The Court decided these two criminal appeals in the last two days....

A Jury Could Find That a Supervisor's Use of Two "Highly Offensive" Slurs Created a Hostile Work Environment

Rios v. Meda Pharmaceutical, Inc., ___ N.J. ___ (2021). In Taylor v. Metzger, 152 N.J. 490 (1998), the Supreme Court held that a single racial epithet "was sufficiently severe to...

Reversing the Appellate Division, the Supreme Court Adopts the "Ongoing Storm Rule"

Pareja v. Princeton International Properties, ___ N.J. ___ (2021). This 5-2 decision addressed the "ongoing storm rule," which Justice Fernandez-Vina's majority opinion defined as a doctrine "under which a landowner...

The Supreme Court Largely Upholds the Attorney General's Directives Regarding Release of Police Officer Disciplinary Information

In re Attorney General Law Enforcement Directive Nos. 2020-5 and 2020-6, ___ N.J. ___ (2021). As discussed in more detail here, the Appellate Division upheld the power of the Attorney...

The Lodzinski Murder Jury's Guilty Verdict is Affirmed by a 3-3 Supreme Court Vote

State v. Lodzinski, 246 N.J. 331 (2021). As discussed here, this was a highly publicized case, in which a jury found defendant was guilty of the first-degree murder of her...

Last Week

Late last week, the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division each issued two published opinions. Neither court has issued any published opinions this week (nor is either court slated to...

Some Criminal Defendants Detained Pre-Trial Can Reopen Their Detention Hearings, the Supreme Court Says

In re Request to Release Certain Pretrial Detainees, 245 N.J. 218 (2021). This matter arose out of a motion filed by the Office of the Public Defender and the American...

Gubernatorial Pardon Dissolves Statutory Bar on Expungement of Convictions

In re Petition for Expungement of the Criminal Record Belonging to T.O., ___ N.J. ___ (2021). The first Supreme Court opinion of 2021, issued this morning, was authored by Chief...

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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....