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

The New Term's First Grant of Supreme Court Review

Kicking off its new term, the Supreme Court announced its first grant of review last Friday. The Court granted leave to appeal in State v. Dickerson, another case under the...

Three More Cases to be Reviewed by the Supreme Court

Today, the Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in three cases. All three cases involve grants of certification, and one of them also is an appeal as of...

Plaintiff is Over the Moon, as the Third Circuit Applies New Jersey's Arbitration Cases to Defeat Defendant's Demand for Arbitration

Moon v. Breathless, Inc., 868 F.3d 209 (3d Cir. 2017). At least since 2014, when the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided Atalese v. U.S. Legal Servs. Grp., L.P., 219...

The Supreme Court Abandons Baures v. Lewis in Family Law Child Relocation Cases

Bisbing v. Bisbing, 230 N.J. 309 (2017). Justice Patterson began her opinion in this case, for a unanimous Court, as follows. "This appeal arises from a trial court's post-judgment determination...

Two Opinions in Two Days by Justice Solomon

In re Atlantic County, 230 N.J. 237 (2017); In re New Jersey Firemens Association Obligation to Provide Relief Application Under Open Public Records Act, 230 N.J. 258 (2017). On Wednesday...

Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program is Meant to Produce Enforceable Settlements, and the Supreme Court Enforces Such a Settlement

GMAC Mortgage, LLC v. Willoughby, 230 N.J. 172 (2017). In 2008, recognizing the effects of the financial crisis on New Jersey homeowners, our Supreme Court established the Residential Mortgage Foreclosure...

Appellate Court's View That Merits of a Case Are Weak Does Not Justify Abandoning Deferential Standard of Review of Trial Level Discovery Rulings

Capital Health System, Inc. v. Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc., 230 N.J. 73 (2017). These two consolidated cases involved rulings on discovery disputes, a subject that rarely reaches the Supreme Court....

Ex Post Facto Constitutional Issues, Workers Compensation Jurisdiction, and Municipal Land Use Are Added to the Supreme Court's Docket

The Supreme Court has granted certification to review three more appeals. The first of those actually consists of four cases that have been consolidated under the lead case, State v....

Piercing the Corporate Veil: An Anniversary

July 21, 1983 saw two very important opinions from the Supreme Court. One of them, Application of Matthews, 94 N.J. 59 (1983), was the first major opinion regarding a Committee...

A Big OPRA Opinion From Chief Justice Rabner

North Jersey Media Group, Inc. v. Lyndhurst Tp., 229 N.J. 541 (2017). Due to the amount of administrative duties that attend the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court...

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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....