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

"Summer Breeze Makes Me Feel Fine" and Brings in the Appellate Division's Summer Parts Schedule

This year's "summer" song, to introduce the just-announced Appellate Division summer Parts schedule, is by Seals & Croft. The schedule is different this year as compared to previous ones. Instead...

Grapes Turn Sour for "Mode of Operation" Plaintiff

Jeter v. Sam's Club, ___ N.J. ___ (2022). Writing for a 4-2 majority, Justice Solomon began his opinion for the Court today as follows: "Under the ‘mode of operation' rule,...

Appointing Wife's Children as Her Guardian in Divorce Proceeding Did Not Render Subsequent Settlement Unconscionable

D.M.C. v. K.H.G., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2022). This Family Part appeal involved the dissolution of a marriage that had lasted 31 years. As Judge Mawla described in...

Two Accelerated Appeals, and Four More, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in six cases. Three of those involve grants of leave to appeal and three are grants of certification. The Court accelerated...

Justice Fernandez-Vina Reaches Age 70 and Retires From the Supreme Court

Yesterday, Justice Fernandez-Vina turned seventy years old. That is the mandatory retirement age for judges, which Justice O'Hern, for whom I clerked, referred to as "the age of constitutional senility."...

Two Concise Opinions, by Judges Fisher and Currier

In the last two days, Judges Fisher and Currier, respectively, authored published opinions that consumed fewer than ten pages. Here they are: State v. M.K.P., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App...

Four New Temporary Appointees to the Appellate Division

The Supreme Court announced today that four judges are being temporarily assigned to the Appellate Division, "effective March 14, 2022 through May 23, 2022, to serve on such Parts as...

Judge Smith Explains the Third Circuit's Standard for Rule 23(f) Appeals of Grants or Denials of Class Certification

Laudato v. EQT Corporation, ___ F.4th ___ (3d Cir. 2022). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f) states that "[a] court of appeals may permit an appeal from an order granting...

A Unanimous Civil Rights Act Opinion by a Third Circuit Panel, With a Concurrence in Which All Three Judges Joined. Huh?

Jefferson v. Lias, ___ F.4th ___ (3d Cir. 2021). Back in 2019, this post discussed a circumstance where two of the three judges on a Third Circuit panel filed an...

Which Should Come First in a Criminal Case Involving a Juvenile Sought to be Tried as an Adult: A Suppression Motion in the Family Part or Waiver to the Criminal Part?

State in the Interest of E.S., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2021). Judge Sabatino concisely posed the purely legal issue presented on this appeal: "This interlocutory appeal presents an...

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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....