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

A Fine Mess Involving the Designation of Trial Counsel Rule

Hernandez v. North Jersey Neurosurgical Assocs., 2013 N.J. Super. LEXIS 1146 (App. Div. May 14, 2013). This decision, in a medical malpractice case, was designated as not precedential, but perhaps should be reconsidered...

More About Notice Under the Municipal Land Use Law

Northgate Condominium Ass'n, Inc. v. Hillsdale Planning Bd., 214 N.J. 120 (2013). Opponents of land use development applications sometimes contest the adequacy of the notice given by development applicants, as occurred in...

The Appellate Division Will Now Strictly Enforce Certain Rules

In a Notice to the Bar, the Appellate Division has announced that, effective July 1, 2013, the Clerk's Office will begin "strictly enforcing" various time limitations and page restrictions of the Court Rules....

Attorneys' Liens

Schepisi & McLaughlin, P.A. v. Lofaro, 430 N.J. Super. 347 (App. Div. 2013). In this decision by Judge Kennedy, the Appellate Division reversed rulings of the Law Division because, among other things, the...

Administrative Professionals' Day

Today is Administrative Professionals' Day, an occasion that when first instituted was known as Secretaries' Day but has since evolved, wisely, into its current form. Even more than most attorneys,...

Trial Judge Erred in Limiting Medical Malpractice Plaintiff to One Expert Only

McLean v. Liberty Health System, 430 N.J. Super. 156 (App. Div. 2013). This opinion by Judge Ashrafi addresses a number of evidence issues. The most important, however, relates to the decision of...

The Collateral Order Doctrine and "Mr. Green"

Erie Molded Plastics, Inc. v. Nogah, LLC, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 5991 (3d Cir. March 26, 2013). In a commercial case, defendant advised its attorneys that it would no longer...

Three Procedural Appellate Practice Issues, Brought to You by the Third Circuit

Wiest v. Lynch, 701 F.3d 121 (3d Cir. 2013). This is a very interesting case brought under the whistleblower protections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, 18 U.S.C. §1514A, and Pennsylvania law. The Third Circuit,...

Respondents Have a Duty to Move to Dismiss Improper Appeals

Normally, when the Appellate Division perceives that a purported appeal as of right, which must be from a final judgment, is in fact an interlocutory appeal from a non-final judgment,...

A Tip for Appellants, and One for Respondents/Appellees

Ethypharm S.A. Fr. v. Abbott Labs., 707 F.3d 223 (3d Cir. 2013). This is an antitrust standing case. The Third Circuit's opinion, written by Judge Jordan, found that plaintiff had...

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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....