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

Three Basic Appellate Principles From a Recent Unpublished Opinion

At this time of the year, published decisions from the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division are few and far between, as the new Term is barely one month old....

Another Short Week, and Another Catch-Up Post

In the past two weeks, an Appellate Division brief and a Supreme Court petition consumed much time. So, in this shortened Thanksgiving week, it's time to catch up on the...

The Last Half of February in the Appellate Division

This follows up on yesterday's post about the second half of February in the Supreme Court. Here are summaries of some of the Appellate Division's published opinions issued in the...

Judicial, Equitable, and Collateral Estoppel, as Well as Waiver, Barred a Municipality's Arguments in the Mount Laurel Context

In re Borough of Englewood Cliffs, 473 N.J. Super. 189 (App. Div. 2022). Judge Gilson's opinion for the Appellate Division in this case today arose out of the settlement of...

Disqualification of Counsel Reversed on Leave to Appeal, Due to Trial Court's Failure to Apply the Trupos Test

Dental Health Assocs. South Jersey, P.A. v. RRI Gibbsboro, LLC, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2022). Trial court decisions disqualifying counsel are often cited as the type of ruling...

Judicial Estoppel Applies in Spill Act Cases

Terranova v. General Electric Pension Trust, 457 N.J. Super. 404 (App. Div. 2019). Judge Moynihan's opinion in this New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act case today addresses whether the...

Another Mount Laurel Case for the Supreme Court?

In re Declaratory Judgment Actions Filed by Various Municipalities, 446 N.J. Super. 259 (App. Div. 2016). It has been 41 years since the Supreme Court issued its original Mount Laurel...

Forum Selection Clauses and Non-Parties to Such Clauses

Carlyle Investment Management LLC v. Moonmouth Company SA, 779 F.3d 214 (3d Cir. 2015). Parties can, and often do, include forum selection clauses in their contracts. Such clauses are frequently...

Clear and Convincing Evidence is Required to Rebut a Presumption of Gift From Parent to Child

Bhagat v. Bhagat, 217 N.J. 22 (2014). A father transferred stock in a close corporation to his son. Such transfers from parent to child are generally presumed to be gifts,...

Choice of Law in the Insurance Context

DeMarco v. Stoddard, 434 N.J. Super. 352 (App. Div. 2014). In P.V. v. Camp Jaycee, 197 N.J. 132 (2008), discussed here, the Supreme Court replaced the "governmental interest test" that had guided...

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Four New Criminal Appeals, and a Lone Civil Matter, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in five new appeals. Four of them are criminal cases and one is a civil appeal....

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....

"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....