NJ Appellate Law Blog

The Supreme Court Takes Up Two More Cases, One Civil and One Criminal

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in two new cases. One is a civil matter, in which a two-judge Appellate Division panel issued an unpublished per curiam...

Is an Appellate Division Merits Panel Bound by One-Judge Appellate Division Rulings Limiting the Scope of the Appeal?

Devers v. Devers, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2022). This was a matrimonial appeal. The issue centered around whether a particular financial account ("the Gauss account") was marital property....

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...

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In Primary Election Dispute, the Supreme Court Declines to Rewrite Election Laws to Create Remedies Not Afforded by Those Statutes

Johnson v. Wilkerson, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Chief Justice Rabner's opinion for a unanimous Court follows on the Court's September 19, 2025 Order that upheld a ruling by Judge Sabatino in an emergent appeal by a candidate for a Roselle council seat. That Order stated that an opinion would follow....

Appellate Division Oral Argument of the Week: Two Well-Known Law Firms Face Off Against Each Other, as Parties

Tomorrow, October 28, judges on Part E of the Appellate Division will hear oral argument in Nagel Rice, LLP v. Starkey, Kelly, Kenneally, Cunningham & Turnbach. It is relatively rare for one law firm to sue another, but that has occurred here....

Two Certified Question Cases From the Third Circuit, and a Related Grant of Leave to Appeal, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in three new matters. Two of them involve questions certified to the Court by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, under Rule 2:12A. It is relatively rare for the Court to receive, and rarer for it to grant, petitions to decide certified questions, and it appears unprecedented for the Court to have granted review in two such cases at the same time. The other new case is a grant of leave to appeal to address one of the same issues presented in one of the certified question matters....

Still Another Committee on Character Anniversary

This blog has in the past noted anniversaries of Supreme Court decisions involving appeals from the Court's Committee on Character, on which I served for fifteen years. Today is another such anniversary, as on October 22, 1997, the Court decided In re Triffin, 151 N.J. 510 (1997)....