The Supreme Court Civil Practice Committee just issued its 2020 report about proposed (and rejected) amendments to the New Jersey Court Rules. The full report is available here. Comments on that report are due by March 20, 2020. There are many substantive changes in the proposed rules, which make this report required reading. But there is only one such change proposed in the Part 2 appellate rules, and it affects only criminal matters, and only a limited subset of those. There are also a few “housekeeping amendments” proposed, including changes to Rules 2:2-3, 2:9-3, and 2:9-10....

State v. Faulcon, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2020). Judge Koblitz did not leave readers in suspense about the outcome of her opinion for the Appellate Division today. Her first sentence says “We hold that defense counsel who represented a State witness who was questioned in the investigation of a murder may not then represent the defendant in the same case.” The Appellate Division’s ruling today reversed a decision of the Law Division that had found that defense counsel’s former representation of the witness was not directly adverse and did not materially limit...

Pathri v. Kakarlamath, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2020). This was a matrimonial matter. Both spouses came to the United States from India. Shortly after plaintiff filed this suit for divorce, he moved back to India. Shortly before trial, plaintiff sought the right to testify from India by contemporaneous video transmission, because he was unable to get a visa to come to the United States to testify in person. The Family Part denied the motion because it would inhibit the judge’s ability to assess plaintiff’s credibility. Plaintiff sought and was granted leave to appeal, and...