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

House Judiciary Committee Votes for Live Streaming of U.S. Supreme Court and Circuit Court of Appeals Oral Arguments

The House Judiciary Committee, by a voice vote, advanced the Judiciary Reforms, Organizational and Modernization Act of 2018, known as "the Judiciary ROOM Act." The bill number is H.R. 6755....

As Summer Nears Its End, the Third Circuit Cranks Out Opinions

This time of the year there are slim pickings in terms of published opinions of the Supreme Court of New Jersey or the Appellate Division. Even unpublished Appellate Division opinions...

Class of Kia Vehicles Owners Was Entitled to Damages Based on Aggregate Figures Rather Than Individual Damage Assessments

Little v. Kia Motors America, Inc., 455 N.J. Super. 411 (App. Div. 2018). Class actions notoriously take a long time. But the case in which Judge Koblitz issued a decision...

Digging Out

This past Monday, I argued two appeals in the Supreme Court of New Jersey. They were the Accutane matters discussed and . In the period leading up to those arguments,...

Allocation Among Multiple Defendants of Attorneys' Fees Under Fee-Shifting Statutes

Empower our Neighborhoods v. Guadagno, 453 N.J. Super. 565 (App. Div. 2018). This was an election case under the federal and New Jersey civil rights acts, both of which provide...

The Last Few Weeks, Part 1

Due to an unusual amount of business travel (alas, only to three cold-weather locations) and a hefty appellate brief, I have not been able to keep up with the courts...

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...

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...

Collateral Source Statute Does Not Apply to Awards Under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination

Acevedo v. Flightsafety International, Inc., 449 N.J. Super. 185 (App. Div. 2017). In this opinion by Judge Reisner, the Appellate Division held that it was error for the Law Division...

33 Years Since Mount Laurel II

Today is inauguration day for Donald Trump. He and his designee to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson, might take a lesson from a decision...

1 2 3 4 567 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17…Last

"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....