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

Judges Augostini, Bergman, Jacobs, and Torregrossa-O'Connor Are Again Temporarily Assigned to the Appellate Division

As discussed here, Judges Augostini, Bergman, Jacob, and Torregrossa-O'Connor were temporarily assigned to particular Parts of the Appellate Division for the period of March 25-May 19, 2024. Chief Justice Rabner...

Justice Alan B. Handler (1931-2024)

Justice Alan B. Handler died on May 23. He was 92 years old. Justice Handler served on the Supreme Court of New Jersey for 22 years, from 1977 through 1999...

It's That Time Again: Appellate Division Summer Parts

In an Order available here, Chief Justice Rabner announced the summer Part schedule for the Appellate Division. The term "Summer Parts," which has not been formally used by the courts...

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and Emotional Support Animals in Condominiums

Players Place II Condominium Ass'n, Inc. v. K.P., 256 N.J. 472 (2024). This case came to the Supreme Court as of right, due to a dissent in the Appellate Division...

Big Changes in the Appellate Division

In orders dated yesterday and published this morning, Chief Justice Rabner announced significant changes in the Appellate Division. Four new judges have been temporarily elevated to that court, while a...

Supreme Court Statistics for the 2022-23 Term

What better date to present statistics from the 2022-23 Supreme Court Term than the first working day (for many people) of this new calendar year? And who better to have...

Judges Vanek and Vinci Are Again Temporarily Elevated to the Appellate Division

Chief Justice Rabner announced that Judges Christine Vanek and Robert Vinci have been temporarily assigned to the Appellate Division. Both assignments are effective on January 2, 2024 and have no...

Another Short Week, and Another Catch-Up Post

In the past two weeks, an Appellate Division brief and a Supreme Court petition consumed much time. So, in this shortened Thanksgiving week, it's time to catch up on the...

Three New Appeals for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in three new appeals. All are from unpublished opinions of the Appellate Division. In Constructural Dynamics, Inc. v. Arch Insurance Co.,...

Expert Testimony That Shaking Alone Can Cause the Injuries Associated With "Shaken Baby Syndrome" is Insufficiently Reliable to be Admissible at Trial

State v. Nieves, 476 N.J. Super. 609 (App. Div. 2023). This was a monumental opinion by Judge Gooden Brown in two consolidated cases. The issue was "the scientific reliability of...

1 2 3 4 5 678 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44…Last

Retired Policeman's Pension Benefits Were Wrongly Paid to His Estranged Spouse Rather Than to His Estate, Where He Had Not Designated Anyone to Receive the Pension Benefit if He Died

Isaac v. Board of Trustees, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Two kinds of benefits are payable to retired members of the.Police and Firemen's Retirement System ("PFRS"). One is a pension benefit, a part of the member's compensation for past services. Pension benefits go to the person whom the member designates, or to the member's estate if no designation is made. The other is a survivor's benefit, which goes to the member's widow for the duration of his or her widowhood. Former Newark policeman Keith Isaac made no designation as to his pension benefits, though he did list his estranged wife, Roxanne, as his spouse when he filed for retirement. Based on that, Isaac's pension benefits were distributed to Roxanne. Isaac's estate contested that, and today the Supreme Court held that the estate should have gotten the pension monies....

The Supreme Court Clarifies New Jersey's Automobile Exception to the Requirement of a Search Warrant

State v. Fenimore, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Both the United States and New Jersey Constitutions protect the people against "unreasonable searches and seizures" and prohibit the issuance of search warrants without "probable cause." Both federal and New Jersey law, however, recognize an "automobile exception" to the warrant requirement. But New Jersey's automobile exception is narrower than the federal exception, as the Supreme Court stated in State v. Witt, 223 N.J. 409 (2015). Today, the Supreme Court ruled that the Appellate Division in this case had interpreted Witt too broadly in reversing a Law Division decision to exclude evidence from a warrantless search. The Supreme Court reversed and excluded the evidence....

"Liberal Standards" for Standing "Are Not Equivalent to No Standards At All," the Supreme Court Says

New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers, Inc. v. Ford Motor Co., ___ N.J. ___ (2025). As Justice Pierre-Louis observed in her opinion for a unanimous Court in this case today, New Jersey state courts have long "take[n] a more liberal approach to standing than federal law." But in this appeal, the statute sued upon, the Franchise Practices Act, N.J.S.A. 56:10-1 et seq. ("FPA"), stated that only a "franchisee" could sue its franchisor. Because plaintiff here ("NJCAR") was not a franchisee but an association of franchisees, NJCAR lacked standing to bring a FPA case....

Compassionate Release Act Does Not Require Physical Examination of Inmates Seeking Relief, But Denial of Relief in This Case Was Arbitrary and Capricious

M.R. v. New Jersey Department of Corrections, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Plaintiff appealed the denial of his petition for release under the Compassionate Release Act, N.J.S.A. 30:4-123.51 ("CRA"). He argued that he had not been physically examined by a physician, and that the statute required a physical examination. The Appellate Division determined that the statute did not require a physical examination and upheld the denial of compassionate release. Today, in a unanimous opinion by Justice Hoffman, the Supreme Court agreed that no physical examination was required, but reversed the denial of compassionate relief as insupportable....