New Jersey Department of Children & Families v. E.L., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2018).  Courts often give public entity parties more leeway in complying with rules, court orders, and the like than private parties are given.  Sometimes Court Rules themselves give preference to public agencies, as is so, for example, of Rule 2:9-6(b), which exempts the State, its political subdivisions, and “any of their respective officers or agencies” fro

State Farm Guaranty Ins. Co. v. Hereford Ins. Co., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2018).  Following an auto accident, the two insurance company parties to this appeal had a dispute about the reimbursement of personal injury protection (“PIP”) benefits.  State Farm had paid PIP benefits to its insured and then sued Hereford for reimbursement.  State Farm demanded arbitration of the dispute.  State Farm had a contract with Arbitration Forums, Inc.

T.L. v. Goldberg, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2018).  The Appellate Division split 2-1 in this medical malpractice case.  The issue was whether the defendant doctor’s unexpected change in his sworn testimony, from an interrogatory answer that stated that he would not rely on expert evidence other than that offered by plaintiffs and analogous deposition testimony, to trial testimony by the doctor himself in which he justified his course of treatment by referring to a journal article,