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

Supreme Court Will Review Emma v. Evans

In Emma v. Evans, 424 N.J. Super. 36 (App. Div. 2012), the Appellate Division addressed the question of whether the presumption in favor of the parent of primary residence who seeks a...

Attorney Disqualified From Representing Party in Same Matter Where Attorney Previously Represented Adverse Party

Twenty-First Century Rail Corp. v. New Jersey Transit Corp., 210 N.J. 264 (2012). This case involved an effort to disqualify counsel in a construction case for a conflict of interest under Rule...

An Anniversary in the Law of Fiduciary Duties Between Business Partners

On this date in 1955, the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided Stark v. Reingold, 18 N.J. 251 (1955). The case involved charges and counter-charges of wrongful conduct by partners...

Wikipedia in the Appellate Courts

A recent posting about citations to Wikipedia in the federal Circuit Courts of Appeals leads to the question of what the attitude is toward Wikipedia in the Supreme Court of...

A Wise Decision on Class Arbitration

Sutter v. Oxford Health Plans, LLC, 675 F.3d 215 (3d Cir. 2012). Decisions in favor of class arbitration may seem to be few and far between these days. But in this case,...

NAACP v. Foulke Management May be Settling

There is word that NAACP v. Foulke Management, 421 N.J. Super. 404 (App. Div. 2011), which the Supreme Court agreed to review, may be settling. The parties have asked the Court to...

DePascale v. New Jersey (Judges' Pension Case) Argued

The oral argument in the Supreme Court of the United States today about the Affordable Care Act, a/k/a "Obamacare," has drawn so much attention that it has overshadowed the nearly...

Senate Judiciary Committee Rejects Kwon for Supreme Court

Today, by a 7-6 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected Governor Christie's nomination of Philip Kwon for a seat on the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Seven of the eight...

Supreme Court Will Review Municipal Land Use Conflict of Interest Case

The Supreme Court has granted review of the decision in Kane Properties, LLC v. City of Hoboken, 423 N.J. Super. 49 (App. Div. 2011). The Appellate Division's decision is discussed here. The...

DePascale to be Argued on March 26

The Supreme Court has scheduled oral argument in this potentially significant constitutional case for March 26 at 10 A.M. The courtroom may be filled to overflowing, but interested persons can...

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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....