NJ Appellate Law Blog

Either Side of July 4

With July 4 falling on a Tuesday, some of us took the opportunity to extend the preceding weekend into some or all of the last days of June, July 3,...

Three More Supreme Court Grants of Certification Today

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted certification in three new cases. All of them are civil appeals. In Robey v. SPARC Group, LLC, the question presented, as...

Two Law Against Discrimination Decisions by the Appellate Division

Beneduci v. Graham Curtin P.A., 476 N.J. Super. 73 (App. Div. 2023); Guzman v. M. Texeira Int'l, Inc., 476 N.J. Super. 64 (App. Div. 2023). The Appellate Division issued two...

Resolution of the "Borrowed Employee" Issue under Galvao v. G.R. Robert Construction Co. is For the Jury, Not a Judge

Pantano v. New York Shipping Ass'n, 254 N.J. 101 (2023). Judge Sabatino wrote this 6-0 opinion, which involved "the application of the multi-factor test [the Court] announced in Galvao v....

No Need for Attorney Retainer Agreements to State Expressly That Billing Will be in Tenths of an Hour or Other Increments

Arbus, Maybruch & Goode, LLC v. Cohen, 475 N.J. Super. 509 (App. Div. 2023). In this suit by a law firm to collect its fee from a client (actually, an...

Five More Cases for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in five new cases. Here they are: In Usachenok v. State of New Jersey, Dep't of the Treasury, the question presented,...

A "Hostile/Warlike" Exclusion in an Insurance Policy Does Not Bar Coverage for a Cyberattack

Merck & Co., Inc. v. Ace American Ins. Co., 475 N.J. Super. 420 (App. Div. 2023). Plaintiff ("Merck") suffered a cyberattack from malware known as NotPetya. An expert for Merck's...

Two Supreme Court Grants of Leave to Appeal: A Miranda Warnings Case and a Consumer Fraud Case

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted leave to appeal in two new cases. In State v. Tiwana, the question presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk's office...

The Appellate Division Declines to Rewrite N.J.S.A. 39:6A-4.5(b)

Castano v. Augustine, 475 N.J. Super. 71 (App. Div. 2023). N.J.S.A. 39:6A-4.5(b), enacted as part of the reform of New Jersey's automobile insurance system, states: "Any person who is convicted...

The Last Half of February in the Appellate Division

This follows up on yesterday's post about the second half of February in the Supreme Court. Here are summaries of some of the Appellate Division's published opinions issued in the...

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In Primary Election Dispute, the Supreme Court Declines to Rewrite Election Laws to Create Remedies Not Afforded by Those Statutes

Johnson v. Wilkerson, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Chief Justice Rabner's opinion for a unanimous Court follows on the Court's September 19, 2025 Order that upheld a ruling by Judge Sabatino in an emergent appeal by a candidate for a Roselle council seat. That Order stated that an opinion would follow....

Appellate Division Oral Argument of the Week: Two Well-Known Law Firms Face Off Against Each Other, as Parties

Tomorrow, October 28, judges on Part E of the Appellate Division will hear oral argument in Nagel Rice, LLP v. Starkey, Kelly, Kenneally, Cunningham & Turnbach. It is relatively rare for one law firm to sue another, but that has occurred here....

Two Certified Question Cases From the Third Circuit, and a Related Grant of Leave to Appeal, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in three new matters. Two of them involve questions certified to the Court by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, under Rule 2:12A. It is relatively rare for the Court to receive, and rarer for it to grant, petitions to decide certified questions, and it appears unprecedented for the Court to have granted review in two such cases at the same time. The other new case is a grant of leave to appeal to address one of the same issues presented in one of the certified question matters....

Still Another Committee on Character Anniversary

This blog has in the past noted anniversaries of Supreme Court decisions involving appeals from the Court's Committee on Character, on which I served for fifteen years. Today is another such anniversary, as on October 22, 1997, the Court decided In re Triffin, 151 N.J. 510 (1997)....