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

Returning From the Break- Supreme Court Opinions

While this blog was on an early August break, the Supreme Court was busy, issuing five opinions. Here are summaries: Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Comm'n v. George Harms Construction...

A Reminder From the Appellate Division About Confidential Information

A Notice to the Bar, dated September 1, 2021, was published late yesterday. It is available here. Issued by Judge Messano, the Notice is titled "APPELLATE DIVISION REMINDER TO COUNSEL...

A Practical Interpretation of the Statute Banning Concealment or Obscuring Markings on Automobile License Plates

State v. Carter, ___ N.J. ___ (2021); State v. Roman-Rosado, ___ N.J. ___ (2021). These two consolidated appeals, in which Chief Justice Rabner authored a unanimous opinion issued today, dealt...

What Not to Do as an Attorney: "Appalling, Unlawyerly Behavior"

United States v. Brace, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 17482 (3d Cir. June 11, 2021). Every so often, attorney conduct is so egregiously bad that it results in a published opinion,...

Appellate Division Procedures to Expedite Appeals From Denial of Medical Furlough Applications by Inmates

As discussed here, the Supreme Court recently added due process protections to Governor Murphy's Executive Order No. 124, which created a mechanism to identify persons held in state prisons or...

Third Circuit Will Continue to Hear Oral Arguments Despite Coronavirus

The Third Circuit announced today that it "is open for business and will fulfill its constitutional and statutory obligations and responsibilities." Oral arguments will continue as scheduled, but merits panels...

Oral Argument Guidelines From the Federal Circuit

As part of a larger "Guide for Oral Argument" (dated January 2020, and designated "Version 2.0"), the Federal Circuit provided the following "Guidelines for Counsel During Argument." Many of them...

The Most Common Deficiencies in Appellate Division Briefs and Appendices

The bane of every appellate practitioner's existence is the dreaded deficiency notice from the Appellate Division. Last night's meeting of the New Jersey State Bar Association's Appellate Practice Committee included...

The Three Tests for Confidentiality of Litigation Documents

In re Avandia Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, 924 F.3d 662 (3d Cir. 2019). This appeal had an unusual subject: whether certain documents that defendant GlaxoSmithKline ("GSK") had...

If You Appeal But Don't Follow Through, Don't Come Back Later With Your Issues From the Abandoned Appeal

Park Crest Cleaners, LLC v. A Plus Cleaners & Alterations Corp., 458 N.J. Super. 465 (App. Div. 2019). This opinion by Judge Fisher today dismissed an appeal under convoluted facts....

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The Last Seven Days

The last seven days, an especially busy period for me, featured one Supreme Court opinion and two published Appellate Division decisions. Here are summaries of those rulings:...

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....