NJ Appellate Law Blog

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...

Jury Charges on Causation in Medical Malpractice Cases

Komlodi v. Picciano, 217 N.J. 387 (2014). Causation is often a key factor in medical malpractice cases. And jury charges in such cases are, as in all cases, important to...

The Third Circuit Interprets New Jersey's Affidavit of Merit Statute

Nuveen Municipal Trust v. WithumSmith Brown P.C., 752 F.3d 600 (3d Cir. 2014). As discussed here, the Supreme Court of New Jersey has occasionally accepted requests from the the Third Circuit...

Jury Duty for All

In an article available here, today's Star-Ledger reports that Chief Justice Rabner appeared for jury duty yesterday in Essex County Superior Court. AFter watching an orientation video for jurors that featured...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 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 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 757677 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102…Last

The Second and Third Published Appellate Division Decisions of the Current Term

As September turned to October, the Appellate Division issued its second and third published opinions of the Term. One was a decision by Judge Vinci in a civil appeal. The other ruling, in a criminal appeal, was authored by Judge Perez Friscia....

Appellate Division Oral Argument of the Week: Did it Violate a Class Action Settlement That Barred Mass Opt-Outs to Allow Opt-Outs From a Marketing Campaign That Solicited Opt-outs?

On Tuesday, September 30, judges on Part G of the Appellate Division will hear oral argument in Esposito v. Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless. The case follows from a $100 million nationwide class action settlement that had required class members who decided to exclude themselves from the settlement and potentially pursue their own litigation against Verizon to opt out individually, and barred mass opt-outs. However, Murphy Advocates, LLC, a Colorado law firm conducted a marketing campaign to create a mass opt-out that attracted about 11,000 class members who responded to Murphy that they wished to opt out....

A Pair of New Criminal Appeals for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in two new cases. Both are criminal appeals. One is from a published opinion of the Appellate Division, while the other is from an unpublished per curiam decision by a three-judge panel....

Can a Plaintiff in a Civil Case Refuse to Testify at Trial After Being Served With a Defense Notice in Lieu of Subpoena and Having Been Ordered to Testify by the Trial Judge? An Anniversary

On this date in 2005, the Supreme Court decided Gonzalez v. Safe & Sound Sec. Corp., 185 N.J. 100 (2005). The case involved a plaintiff who was shot in an apartment building in Atlantic City, which left him paralyzed. He brought a negligence suit against a number of defendants, including Atlantic City Housing & Urban Renewal Associates ("ACHURA"), the owner of the apartment building....