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

Judge Jane Grall (1949-2021)

Judge Jane Grall died on August 20 at age 72. A graduate of Trinity College in Washington, DC, she taught social studies in Cranford for six years before attending Rutgers...

A Pro Se Prisoner Invalidates the Department of Corrections's Outbound Calling Policy, But …

Grimes v. New Jersey Dep't of Corrections, 452 N.J. Super. 396 (App. Div. 2017). This appeal, decided today, had two unusual wrinkles, apart from its substantive outcome. First, a pro...

Ordinances Increasing Municipal Appropriations by Not More Than 3.5% Cannot be the Subject of a Faulkner Act Referendum

Roseff v. Byram Tp., 432 N.J. Super. 8 (App. Div. 2013). The referendum provision of the Faulkner Act, N.J.S.A. 40:69A-185, which permits citizens to petition for a referendum to seek to overturn a...

Appellate Division Rejects Challenge to Special Senatorial Election Process

Having agreed to review on an emergent basis an attack on Governor Christie's decision to schedule a special primary in August and a general election in October to fill the...

Appellate Division Will Hear a Challenge to the Special Senatorial Election

In an Order filed late yesterday, and available here, the Appellate Division granted the emergent application of challengers to Governor Christie's writ of election that scheduled a special primary election...

Department of Education Cap on School Superintendent Salary is Valid

New Jersey Ass'n of School Administrators v. Cerf, 428 N.J. Super. 588 (App. Div. 2012). To help reduce property taxes by limiting school district spending, the Department of Education approved, by rule,...

A "Deadly" Administrative Law Decision

In re Challenge of New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association to Certain N.J.A.C. Amendments, 427 N.J. Super. 268 (App. Div. 2012). This case involved a challenge to amendments to administrative...

Professional Association Has Standing to Sue on Behalf of Its Members, and Court Would Overlook Procedural Deficiency, But Association Still Loses on the Merits

New Jersey Dental Ass'n v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 424 N.J. Super. 160 (App. Div. 2012). Many cases have rightly held that, under New Jersey's liberal standing rules, organizations have standing to...

Don't Count Your Chickens ….

Today's Star-Ledger contained an obituary of Elizabeth Bernoskie. She was the widow of Rahway police officer Charles Bernoskie, who was killed in the line of duty in 1958. Forty years...

Defective Notice of Intention to Foreclose Requires Dismissal Without Prejudice

Bank of New York v. Laks, 422 N.J. Super. 201 (App. Div. 2011). N.J.S.A. 2A:50-56(c)(11), a part of the Fair Foreclosure Act ("FFA"), requires a lender who plans to foreclose on a mortgage...

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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....