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

Securities Fraud Class Actions Survive

Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc., ___ U.S. ___ (2014). In general, in a securities fraud case under section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15...

The Senate Confirms Chief Justice Rabner and Judge Solomon for Supreme Court Seats

Today, the Senate voted to grant tenure to Chief Justice Rabner and to confirm Judge Solomon as an Associate Justice. This was as expected. The vote on Chief Justice Rabner...

Senate Judiciary Committee Endorses Judge Solomon for the Supreme Court

Following yesterdays' 11-2 Senate Judiciary Committee vote in favor of the reappointment of Chief Justice Rabner, the Judiciary Committee held a one-hour hearing on Governor Christie's nomination of Judge Lee...

Chief Justice Rabner Clears the Judiciary Committee

The Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon voted 11-2 to recommend to the full Senate that Chief Justice Rabner be granted tenure on the Supreme Court. The only negative votes came from Senators Michael...

Senate Judiciary Committee Will Hold Hearings on Rabner and Solomon Nominations on June 16

Senator Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has announced that the Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on Governor Christie's nominations of Chief Justice Rabner for tenure...

The New Jersey Civil Rights Act and the Comma Conundrum

Perez v. Zagami, LLC, 218 N.J. 202 (2014), and Cottrell v. Zagami, LLC, 218 N.J. 217 (2014). In these two cases, the Supreme Court addressed the question of whether the...

The State Knowingly Files a "Quixotic" Appeal

State v. Witt, 435 N.J. Super. 608 (App. Div. 2014). Only the Supreme Court of New Jersey can overrule one of its own decisions. But a party who wishes to...

Supreme Court Will Review Kaye v. Rosefielde

On Friday afternoon, the Supreme Court announced that it had granted review in Kaye v. Rosefielde, 432 N.J. Super. 421 (App. Div. 2013). The opinion of the Appellate Division is discussed here....

A Third Party's Consent to a Warrantless Search is Not Constitutionally Valid Where Police Could Have Gotten Consent Directly From Defendant

This is another guest post by Jeffrey A. Shooman, my colleague at Lite DePalma Greenberg, LLC: State v. Coles, 217 N.J. 467 (2014). Sergeant Zsakhiem James of the Camden Police...

Governor Christie Will Renominate Chief Justice Rabner and Will Nominate Judge Solomon to the Supreme Court as Well

At a press conference that just concluded, Governor Christie announced that he will renominate Chief Justice Rabner to the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice's initial term expires next month. Senate...

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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....