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

This Week's Supreme Court Decisions

In the last three days, the Supreme Court issued opinions in two criminal cases and one civil appeal. All three decisions were unanimous. Here are summaries of those rulings: State...

Three More Supreme Court Grants of Certification Today

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted certification in three new cases. All of them are civil appeals. In Robey v. SPARC Group, LLC, the question presented, as...

Plaintiffs Can Seek to Be Accompanied to a Defense Medical Examination by a Third Person or to Record the Examination, and (Contrary to the Appellate Division) Plaintiffs Do Not Bear the Burden of Pro

DiFiore v. Pezic, 254 N.J. 212 (2023). [Disclosure: Catherine B. Derenze, my colleague at Lite DePalma Greenberg & Afanador, LLC, argued before the Supreme Court in this case on behalf...

Judges Chase, Perez Friscia, and Walcott-Henderson Are Temporarily Assigned to the Appellate Division

Chief Justice Rabner announced that Judges Chase, Perez Friscia, and Walcott-Henderson have been temporarily assigned to the Appellate Division, effective August 1, 2023. The Orders appointing each of them are...

Two Law Against Discrimination Decisions by the Appellate Division

Beneduci v. Graham Curtin P.A., 476 N.J. Super. 73 (App. Div. 2023); Guzman v. M. Texeira Int'l, Inc., 476 N.J. Super. 64 (App. Div. 2023). The Appellate Division issued two...

School Board Has No Duty to Notify Tenured Full-Time Teachers Who Seek to Move to Part-Time That They May Lose Tenure Rights, But Boards are "Encourage[d]" To Do So

Parsells v. Somerville Bd. of Educ., 254 N.J. 152 (2023). Justice Fasciale wrote the Court's unanimous opinion in this case today. Plaintiff lost on the legal issue that prompted the...

Resolution of the "Borrowed Employee" Issue under Galvao v. G.R. Robert Construction Co. is For the Jury, Not a Judge

Pantano v. New York Shipping Ass'n, 254 N.J. 101 (2023). Judge Sabatino wrote this 6-0 opinion, which involved "the application of the multi-factor test [the Court] announced in Galvao v....

The Status of Real Estate Salespeople, and an Encore Sexual Assualt Survivor Protection Act Case, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in two new cases. In Kennedy v. Weichert Co., where the Court granted leave to appeal, the question presented, as phrased...

No Need for Attorney Retainer Agreements to State Expressly That Billing Will be in Tenths of an Hour or Other Increments

Arbus, Maybruch & Goode, LLC v. Cohen, 475 N.J. Super. 509 (App. Div. 2023). In this suit by a law firm to collect its fee from a client (actually, an...

Two Arbitration-Related Appeals for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in two new appeals. Those cases each involve arbitration, though in differing respects. In County of Passaic v. Horizon Healthcare Services...

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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....

"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....