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

How to Terminate a Contract for Sale of Residential Real Estate

Conley v. Guerrero, 443 N.J. Super. 62 (App. Div. 2015). As a result of a settlement in New Jersey State Bar Ass'n v. New Jersey Ass'n of Realtor Bds., 93...

A Lesson in the Commonality and Predominance Criteria of Federal Rule 23

Reyes v. Netdeposit, LLC, 802 F.3d 469 (3d Cir. 2015). Sometimes things slip through the cracks. This opinion by Chief Judge McKee was issued on September 2, but only now...

Another Attempt to Compel Arbitration Based on Inadequate and Unclear Documents Fails

Barr v. Bishop Rosen & Co., Inc., 442 N.J. Super. 599 (App. Div. 2015). Both before and after Atalese v. U.S. Legal Servs. Grp., L.P., 219 N.J. 430 (2014), cert....

A Controversial Height Variance Falls

Jacoby v. Englewood Cliffs Bd. of Adj., 442 N.J. Super. 450 (App. Div. 2015). At least since North Bergen Action Group v. North Bergen Tp. Planning Bd., 122 N.J. 567...

Contingent Notices of Appeal and Other Appellate Jurisdiction Puzzles

Witasick v. Minnesota Mutual Life Ins. Co., 803 F.3d 184 (3d Cir. 2015). This was an insurance coverage case. It had a lengthy procedural history, one that implicated criminal as...

Qualified Immunity for Funeral Directors

Gately v. Hamilton Memorial Home, Inc., 442 N.J. Super. 542 (App. Div. 2015). Apart from funeral directors, their attorneys, and a small number of judges, it's likely that few people...

An Easy Statutory Interpretation Ruling, With Bonus Analysis of Declaratory Judgment and Joinder Issues

Williams v. Borough of Clayton, 442 N.J. Super. 583 (App. Div. 2015). N.J.S.A. 40A:14-129 and -130 mandate that an officer seeking promotions to "superior position[s]"in police departments in smaller municipalities...

A Landmark Civil Rights Opinion by Judge Ambro

Hassan v. City of New York, 804 F.3d 277 (3d Cir. 2015). This opinion by Judge Ambro yesterday is one of the most important decisions that the Third Circuit has...

What is a "Building"?

Cashin v. Bello, 223 N.J. 328 (2015). The cardinal principle of statutory interpretation is that plain language controls and ends the need for any further inquiry. In this opinion by...

Justice Fernandez-Vina Will be Temporarily Absent

The Supreme Court announced yesterday that Justice Fernandez-Vina recently had eye surgery and is scheduled for another operation "in the near future" as well. Accordingly, he will not be participating...

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 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 929394 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157…Last

No Ethics Violation in Attorney Purchasing Another Attorney's Name as a Keyword for Internet Searches, the Supreme Court Says, With a Caveat

In re Opinion No. 735 of the Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). [Disclosure: I represented an amicus curiae in this appeal]. As Justice Noriega said in his opinion for a 5-1 majority (Justice Pierre-Louis did not participate), this appeal "presents the narrow question of whether it is permissible under the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC) for an attorney or law firm to purchase a competing attorney's or law firm's name as a keyword." The Court found it permissible, with a caveat. Justice Fasciale dissented....

Four Criminal Law Cases, and a Qui Tam Appeal, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted review in five new appeals. One of them is before the Court on leave to appeal, while in the others the Court granted certification....

The "Limited Attorney Exemption" of the Debt Adjustment and Credit Counseling Act is Held Unconstitutional as Violative of the Separation of Powers and Void for Vagueness

Anchor Law Firm, PLLC v. State of New Jersey, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2025). The Debt Adjustment and Credit Counseling Act, N.J.S.A. 17:16G-1 et seq. ("DACCA"), prohibits debt adjusters in New Jersey from operating for a profit. There is an exception for attorneys not "principally engaged" (a term not defined in the statute) in debt adjustment. That exception, adopted in a 1986 amendment, replaced a prior version of the DACCA that had exempted all attorneys from its scope....

Appellate Division Oral Argument of the Week: Where a Party Files a Suit Alleged to Violate the UPEPA But Quickly Dismisses It, Can Defendants Then Get Counsel Fees Under the Statute?

On May 15, judges on Part C of the Appellate Division will hear oral argument in Satz v. Keshet Starr. Plaintiff, acting pro se, filed a defamation suit against defendants. Defendants filed an o order to show cause to dismiss the case and for attorneys' fees under the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-49 et seq. ("UPEPA"). The UPEPA, enacted in 2023, sought to make it more difficult to use the legal system as a weapon to bully individuals into silence by filing what have been known as SLAPP ("strategic lawsuits against public participation") suits....