The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted certification in Hansen v. Rite Aid Corp. The issue presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk’s office, is “When a trial court awards attorney’s fees to a prevailing party under a statutory fee-shifting provision, may it award fees for prior appellate work in the matter if the party did not file a counsel fee motion with the appellate court?” Affirming the ruling of the Law Division on this and other aspects of plaintiff’s fee application in this Law Against Discrimination case, an unpublished opinion by a...

On Monday, January 31, I have my first in-person appellate argument since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Preparation for that, and other matters, made the current week go by all too fast. Here are summaries of the published opinions that the Supreme Court and Appellate Division issued this week: State v. Nyema, ___ N.J. ___ (2022). This opinion by Justice Pierre-Louis, for a unanimous Supreme Court, actually entailed two cases, the other being State v. Myers. The two defendants were riding in a car with a co-defendant when the police stopped the vehicle. An armed robbery of a 7-Eleven...

To date, 2022 has not been kind to this blog. Down for a period of time due to malware, and then only partially restored, the blog is now fully ready for the new year. But the New Jersey appellate law world did not stop during that time. Here are some summaries of developments, decisional and otherwise, since January 1: The legislative term expired, and with it Governor Murphy’s nomination of Rachel Wainer Apter to fill Justice LaVecchia’s seat on the Supreme Court. After the new legislative term began, the Governor announced that he would renominate her for the seat. There is...