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

Witness Tampering Statute is Neither Unconstitutionally Overbroad Nor Vague

State v. Hill, 474 N.J. Super. 366 (App. Div. 2023). Defendant was convicted of carjacking and witness tampering. After the female victim of the carjacking identified defendant to police from...

A New Year, a New Look, and the First Appellate Division Decision of 2023

After a nearly month-long hiatus, including time to iron out kinks in the long-overdue new look for this blog, this is the first post of 2023. Happy new year to...

Fraud in the Inducement Claim Won't Defeat Forum Selection Clause Unless Fraud Involved That Clause Specifically

Largoza v. FKM Real Estate Holdings, Inc., 252 N.J. Super. 331 (App. Div. 2022). A line of federal cases that includes Prima Paint Corp. v. Flood & Conklin Mfg. Co., 388...

Bidder for a Public Contract Need Not Provide Home Addresses of Persons Owning More Than 10% of the Bidding Company

Asphalt Paving Systems, Inc. v. The Borough of Stone Harbor, 474 N.J. Super. 56 (App. Div. 2022). This opinion by Judge Fisher today consumed only six pages. The issue was...

Statutory Limit on Removed Municipal Administrator's "Salary" Applies to "Severance"

Carelli v. Borough of Caldwell, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2022). N.J.S.A. 40A:9-138 deals with the removal of a municipal administrator from office. The statute provides for a resolution...

A Licensed Practical Nurse is Not a "Licensed Person" Under the Affidavit of Merit Statute

Gilligan v. Junod, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2022). As Judge Gilson stated in his opinion for the Appellate Division today, this case "present[ed] a question of first impression:...

The First Published Appellate Division Decisions of October

Today, and on two days last week, the Appellate Division issued its first published opinions since September 29. Here are summaries of those decisions. Meyers v. State Health Benefit Commission...

The Supreme Court Overrules New Jersey's "New Business" Rule That Barred New Businesses From Seeking Lost Profits Damages

Schwartz v. Menas, 251 N.J. 556 (2022). [Disclosure: I argued this case for the successful plaintiffs, having handled the appeal along with co-counsel, Giovanni DePierro of DePierro Radding]. In 1936,...

An Arbitration Award That Was Procured by Fraud is Undone by the Third Circuit

France v. Bernstein, 43 F.4th 367 (3d Cir. 2022). As Judge Jordan said in his opinion for the Third Circuit today, "[i]t's a steep climb to vacate an arbitration award."...

The First Week of August

The dog days of summer often see the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division issuing opinions in cases argued earlier in the Term. The Third Circuit is often more active...

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The "Limited Attorney Exemption" of the Debt Adjustment and Credit Counseling Act is Held Unconstitutional as Violative of the Separation of Powers and Void for Vagueness

Anchor Law Firm, PLLC v. State of New Jersey, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2025). The Debt Adjustment and Credit Counseling Act, N.J.S.A. 17:16G-1 et seq. ("DACCA"), prohibits debt adjusters in New Jersey from operating for a profit. There is an exception for attorneys not "principally engaged" (a term not defined in the statute) in debt adjustment. That exception, adopted in a 1986 amendment, replaced a prior version of the DACCA that had exempted all attorneys from its scope....

Appellate Division Oral Argument of the Week: Where a Party Files a Suit Alleged to Violate the UPEPA But Quickly Dismisses It, Can Defendants Then Get Counsel Fees Under the Statute?

On May 15, judges on Part C of the Appellate Division will hear oral argument in Satz v. Keshet Starr. Plaintiff, acting pro se, filed a defamation suit against defendants. Defendants filed an o order to show cause to dismiss the case and for attorneys' fees under the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-49 et seq. ("UPEPA"). The UPEPA, enacted in 2023, sought to make it more difficult to use the legal system as a weapon to bully individuals into silence by filing what have been known as SLAPP ("strategic lawsuits against public participation") suits....

"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....