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

Denial of Summary Judgment on Qualified Immunity is Not Immediately Appealable

Harris v. City of Newark, ___ N.J. ___ (2022). [Disclosure: My firm, Lite DePalma Greenberg & Afanador, LLC, represents the City of Newark in certain cases, including cases in which...

Fifteen Years Since Liberty Surplus Ins. Corp. v. Nowell Amoroso, P.A.

It's been awhile since this blog featured an anniversary post. Today is a good day to do so. On this date in 2007, the Supreme Court decided Liberty Surplus Ins...

Immunity Under the Landowner's Liability Act

Russi v. City of Newark, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2022). [Disclosure: My firm, Lite DePalma Greenberg & Afanador, LLC, represents the City of Newark in certain matters, but...

Last Week's Published Opinions

Last week just flew by. So, belatedly, here are summaries of the week's published opinions by the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division: Graphnet, Inc. v. Retarus, Inc., ___ N.J....

No Breach of Contract or Negligence Per Se Claims in Medical Negligence Case

Labega v. Joshi, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2022). Judge Accurso's opinion in this case began as follows: "We permitted defendants in this medical malpractice action leave to appeal...

My Second Appearance on The Bold Sidebar Podcast

The Bold Sidebar is a podcast that its host, Jeff Horn, likes to say addresses "all things New Jersey Supreme Court." As discussed here, I appeared on that podcast last...

This Week's Published Opinions

Today is a court holiday for New Jersey state and federal courts. That affords an opportunity to catch up with this week's published opinions from the Supreme Court,, the Appellate...

The (Non-)Effect of Denials of Petitions for Certification

Our Supreme Court denies far more petitions for certification than it grants. Many people think that a denial of certification means that the Court has ruled in favor of the...

The Supreme Court Adds More Cases

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in four more cases. Three of those involve grants of certification, while the fourth is before the Court on leave to...

Published Opinions From New Jersey's Appellate Courts This Week

Catching up with our appellate courts, here are summaries of the three published opinions (two by the Supreme Court and one by the Appellate Division, in addition to the COVID...

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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....