The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted review in three cases.  The first arises under the new Bail Reform Act.  The question presented there, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk’s Office, is “At a pretrial detention hearing pursuant to New Jersey’s Bail Reform Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:162- 15 to -126, may the State establish probable cause by proffer, rather than producing live testimony from a witness with first-hand knowledge of the offense?”  The Court accelerated the appeal and limited amicus briefs and responses to 20 pages.

The second case th

According to a March 24 Notice to the Bar that was published today, the Supreme Court Committee on Model Civil Jury Charges has approved a number of revised Model Civil Jury Charges on a number of subjects.  Though all of the changes are important to note, several of the revised charges resulted directly from recent appellate decisions in the affected subject matter areas.

Model Charge 1.18 deals with adverse inferences from a party’s failure to produce evidence.  The charge has been revised in light of

Noren v. Heartland Payment Systems, Inc., 448 N.J. Super. 486 (App. Div. 2017).  In Abbamont v. Piscataway Tp. Bd. of Educ., 238 N.J. Super. 603 (App. Div. 1990), aff’d, 138 N.J. 405 (1994), the Appellate Division ruled that there was no right to a jury trial under the Conscientious Employee Protection Act, N.J.S.A. 34:19-1 to -14 (“CEPA”).  Thereafter, the Legislature amended CEPA to provide expressly that “a jury trial shall b