Little v. Kia Motors America, Inc., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2018).  Class actions notoriously take a long time.  But the case in which Judge Koblitz issued a decision for her Appellate Division panel today is nearly old enough to vote.  As her opinion recited, plaintiffs, who are owners or lessees of Kia Sephia model year 1997-2000 vehicles with allegedly defective brakes, began in 2001. In August 2003, plaintiffs obtained class certification.  Contrary to the notion that defendants simply settle once a class is certified, the case continued, and a classwide jury trial occurred in...

Chief Justice Rabner has issued the General Assignment Order for 2018-19.  It is available here.  The Appellate Division lineup again features Judge Messano as Presiding Judge for Administration and Judge Sabatino as Deputy Presiding Judge for Administration.  Those two judges, as well as Judges Simonelli, Koblitz, Alvarez, Fisher, Yannotti, and Fuentes, will serve as Presiding Judges for the eight Parts of the Appellate Division.  Judge Reisner, who had been a Presiding Judge of a Part previously, is now shown as a member of Judge Alvarez’s Part D. The three judges newly appointed to...

Chief Justice Rabner has announced the elevation of three judges to the Appellate Division.  Two of them, Judges Firko and Natali, have been serving on temporary assignment to the Appellate Division since April 16, 2018, as discussed here.  The third judge, Judge Stephanie Ann Mitterhoff, has been sitting in the Civil Division, Essex County, since she was appointed to the bench by Governor Christie in 2014.  Judge Mitterhoff is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Rutgers-Newark School of Law.  Before taking the bench, she was in private practice at Bramnick, Rodriguez,...