NJ Appellate Law Blog

The "Foregone Conclusion" Doctrine Requires a Criminal Defendant to Reveal the Passcode to His Passcode-Protected Cellphone

State v. Andrews, 243 N.J. 447 (2020). In a 4-3 decision that produced lengthy majority and dissenting opinions, the Supreme Court held that it does not violate a criminal defendant's...

Powering Up Again

The power outage resulting from last week's storm put a crimp in much of that week. So it is time once again to catch up with our Supreme Court and...

Qualified Immunity Denied Based on Dispute About Material Facts

Baskin v. Martinez, 243 N.J. 112 (2020). This Civil Rights Act case involved what Justice Albin, writing for the four-Justice majority, labeled a claim that "a justifiable police chase ended...

Several Statutes and Common Law Permit an Assignee of a Mortgage Note That Was Lost by the Assignor to Enforce the Note

Investors Bank v. Torres, 243 N.J. 25 (2020). As discussed here, the Appellate Division, in an opinion reported at 457 N.J. Super. 53 (App. Div. 2018), affirmed a summary judgment...

As June Ends, Three Opinions From the Supreme Court

Unlike the Supreme Court of the United States, which customarily (though apparently not this year) issues all its opinions for the term by June 30, the Supreme Court of New...

Making Up Ground

Due to a personal matter, there have been no posts on this blog since June 2. This post will summarize some of the decisions from our appellate courts since that...

Back in Action

The appellate courts have not been idle since the most recent post on this blog. Opinions have been issued, the Supreme Court has taken up more cases for review, and...

Tenure Rights Vindicated in the Supreme Court

Miller v. State Operated School District of the City of Newark, ___ N.J. ___ (2019). Today, in a per curiam opinion, the Supreme Court affirmed, by a 5-2 vote, the...

Statements Against Interest, a Hearsay Exception

Rowe v. Bell & Gossett Co., 239 N.J. 531 (2019). This first Supreme Court opinion of the new Term, written by Justice Patterson for a unanimous Court, addresses the hearsay...

"Affirmed by an Equally Divided Court"

L.R. v. Camden City Public School Dist., 238 N.J. 547 (2019). A relative rarity for our Supreme Court occurred in this case today: the decision of the Appellate Division was...

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The Final Catch-Up Post: Three Published Appellate Division Decisions

To bring things current, this post summarizes three published Appellate Division opinions that were issued in the recent period. The subject matter of these ruling ranged from construing a Court Rule about reconsideration to applying the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act ("PDVA") to determining whether the Attorney General's office was required to defend and indemnify a Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor facing an attorney disciplinary proceeding that arose out of his official duties....

Three Supreme Court Decisions to Catch Up On

This is the second post that catches up with appellate developments last week and this week. The Supreme Court issued rulings in three cases during that period. Two of those appeals involved unanimous opinions. The third engendered a relatively rare 5-2 split among the Justices. Here are summaries:...

Three More Criminal Appeals for the Supreme Court

Much of last week was consumed by a sojourn in Hershey, PA for the Third Circuit Judicial Conference, a very enjoyable and educational experience. As a result, it's time for some catching up. Today's is the first such post....

Statutory Ban on Retroactive Reduction of Court-Ordered Child Support is Inapplicable to Reductions Based on a Child's Emancipation

Bournes v. Harris, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2026). This post-dissolution appeal from the Family Part involved several questions arising out of a Marital Settlement Agreement ("MSA") entered in a Texas court. In an opinion by Judge Firko, the Appellate Division affirmed a ruling by Judge Lougy, whom the panel identified by name, that New Jersey courts had jurisdiction to enforce and to modify the Texas MSA, and that Judge Lougy properly enforced arrears....