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

Any Order That Compels or Denies Arbitration is Now Final and Immediately Appealable, Even if it Does Not Address All Issues and All Parties

GMAC v. Pittella, 205 N.J. 572 (2011). In Wein v. Morris, 194 N.J. 364 (2008), the Supreme Court used its rulemaking power to amend Rule 2:2-3(a) to add orders compelling arbitration to...

A Third Circuit Debate About Waiver (or Forfeiture) of Arguments Not Raised Below

Tri-M Group, LLC v. Sharp, 638 F.3d 406 (3d Cir. 2011). In this case, the Third Circuit affirmed a district court ruling that Delaware's Prevailing Wage Regulations unlawfully discriminated against out-of-state contractors,...

All Five Women Supreme Court Justices Speak

Imagine that someone assembled Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant to discuss how to win NBA championships. The parallel to such a gathering, for those interested...

Two Useful Appellate Practice Principles From the Virgin Islands

Government of the Virgin Islands v. Mills, 634 F.3d 746 (3d Cir. 2011). It's not often that a case from the Virgin Islands affects the law of appellate practice in the Third...

Mortgagee Lacks Standing to Enforce Note and Mortgage Unless Documents are Properly Authenticated

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Ford, 418 N.J. Super. 592 (App. Div. 2011). The question of whether foreclosing mortgagees have the proper proofs to support their cases has been all over the news...

When May a Party Unilaterally Withdraw an Appeal?

State v. Gaffey, 92 N.J. 374 (1983). Today is the 28th anniversary of this opinion, so it seems appropriate to revisit this case today. Though the "meritorious issue [was] whether...

Affidavits of Merit Must, Unsurprisingly, be Sworn

Taylor v. Community Medical Center, 2011 WL 181370 (App. Div. Jan. 21, 2011). This was an appeal by a plaintiff in a medical malpractice matter. Her complaint was dismissed for...

No Waiver Even Though Argument Was Not Raised Below

Barefoot Architect, Inc. v. Bunge, 632 F.3d 822 (3d Cir. 2011). This was a group of appeals in a Virgin Islands case that involved, among other things, copyright, Lanham Act, and common...

A Victorious Party Cannot Appeal the Reasons Why He Won

Price v. Hudson Heights Development, LLC, 417 N.J. Super. 462 (App. Div. 2011). The appellant, a frequent objector to development who has also often been successful, pro se, in his objections, won...

The Uses of Unpublished Opinions

Division of Youth & Family Services v. M.D., 417 N.J. Super. 583 (App. Div. 2011). This lengthy opinion by Judge Messano focuses on what information counsel must provide to a defendant who...

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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....