M.F. v. JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing f/k/a Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality), _2021 N.J. Super. LEXIS ______ (App. Div. 2021). [Disclosure: I argued this appeal for the successful plaintiffs]. In June 2015, after several years of litigation and a three-week trial, a jury found that defendants had violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, N.J.S.A. 56:8-1 et seq. (“CFA”). As the Appellate Division’s per curiam opinion today summarized, “plaintiffs [had] filed suit, alleging that defendants had engaged in deceptive and fraudulent...

The Supreme Court announced that it has taken up two more cases. One of those is a criminal appeal, State v. Clark, which is before the Court as of right due to a dissent in the Appellate Division. The question presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk’s office, is ” Did the cumulative effect of errors deprive defendant of a fair trial?” After defendant was convicted of murder and unlawful possession of a weapon, he appealed to the Appellate Division. In an unpublished per curiam opinion, that court ruled, by a 2-1 vote, that cumulative trial errors had rendered the...

Phoenix Pinelands Corp. v. Davidoff, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2021). Today’s opinion by Judge Accurso in this case clocked in at 175 pages. It is the longest opinion of the current Term and may be the longest opinion issued by the Appellate Division since this blog began. Here are the first few paragraphs of the opinion, which amply summarizes what followed: “The State of New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection, appeals from a final judgment in this quia timet and ejectment action divesting it of its title to seven parcels of land in the Preservation Area of the...