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

Catching Up Again, With the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division

After this post about the Supreme Court's busy August, that Court decided two more cases. Both were criminal appeals. Here are summaries: State v. Hannah, ___ N.J. ___ (2021). This...

A Busy August for the Supreme Court So Far

August is often a busy month for the Supreme Court, as the Justices count down to the new Term by deciding most if not all of the remaining cases from...

Two From the Supreme Court

Gilbert v. Stewart, ___ N.J. ___ (2021); H.C. Equities, L.P. v. County of Union, ___ N.J. ___ (2021). So far this week, the Supreme Court has issued two opinions, with...

Two Rulings in Criminal Cases by the Supreme Court

State v. Szemple, ___ N.J ___ (2021); J.K. v. New Jersey State Parole Bd., ___ N.J. ___ (2021). The Court decided these two criminal appeals in the last two days....

Despite Commissioner of Education's Failure to Address Segregative Effects of Expansion of Seven Newark Charter Schools, Those Expansions Stand

In re Renewal Application of TEAM Academy Charter School, ___ N.J. ___ (2021). Justice Patterson's decision for a unanimous Supreme Court today addressed whether, when considering the expansion applications of...

Reversing the Appellate Division, the Supreme Court Adopts the "Ongoing Storm Rule"

Pareja v. Princeton International Properties, ___ N.J. ___ (2021). This 5-2 decision addressed the "ongoing storm rule," which Justice Fernandez-Vina's majority opinion defined as a doctrine "under which a landowner...

The Lodzinski Murder Jury's Guilty Verdict is Affirmed by a 3-3 Supreme Court Vote

State v. Lodzinski, 246 N.J. 331 (2021). As discussed here, this was a highly publicized case, in which a jury found defendant was guilty of the first-degree murder of her...

Last Week

Late last week, the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division each issued two published opinions. Neither court has issued any published opinions this week (nor is either court slated to...

Bank of New York Mellon Wins a New Trial in Foreclosure Case Where Mortgagors Alleged Forgery of Their Signatures

The Bank of New York Mellon v. Corradetti, ___ N.J. ___ (2021). As discussed here, this case came before the Supreme Court on an appeal as of right, based on...

Paid "Release Time" for Certain Jersey City Teachers to Handle Union Business Such as Resolving Labor Disputes is Allowed by Statute and is Constitutional

Rozenblit v. Lyles, ___ N.J. ___ (2021). This case involved the question of whether a bargained-for "release time" provision in a collective bargaining agreement between the Jersey City School District...

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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....