Doe v. Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2021). Today, the Appellate Division, speaking through Judge Sumners, issued a decision under the Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq. (“OPRA”). Plaintiff, formerly a student at the university’s Graduate School of Business, made several OPRA requests. The first of those requests included, but went well beyond, plaintiff’s own student records. A second request sought copies of specific Rutgers administrators’ and faculty members’ disclosable employment records....

State v. Gerena, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2021). Defendant was convicted of fourth degree lewdness. A statutory grading element of that offense is that one or more of the children whom witnesses testified were near defendant were under the age of thirteen. To address the age issue, the State offered testimony of witnesses who provided lay opinion as to what they perceived as the children’s ages and heights. Defendant appealed his conviction, primarily on the ground that it was error to admit that lay opinion testimony. In State v. Koettgen, 89 N.J.L. 678 (E. & A. 1916), a...

Wilson v. Director, Office of Workers Compensation Programs, United States Dep’t of Labor, ___ F.3d ___ (3d Cir. 2020). The final published opinion of the Third Circuit in 2020 was a case in which plaintiff, a maritime construction worker on a project to replace a Route 3 bridge spanning the Passaic River between Clifton and Rutherford, NJ, suffered hearing impairment due to the noise of the construction work. He sought benefits under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. 901 et seq. (“LHWCA”). But the LHWCA affords benefits only if a maritime...