Due to travel over most of the past two weeks (and getting “back in the game” once having returned), there have been no posts here.  But the courts have been active during that time.  Here, in brief, are some of the key published decisions of the Supreme Court, the Appellate Division, and the Third Circuit: Paff v. Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, ___ N.J. ___ (2018).  This was a 4-3 decision that reversed a ruling of the Appellate Division, reported at 446 N.J. Super. 163 (App. Div. 2016).  That court, by a 2-1 vote, had held that recordings made by mobile video recorders...

Personal Service Ins. Co. v. Relievus, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2018).  This opinion, issued by Judge Sumners today for a unanimous panel, concerned “whether a Law Division summary action seeking to vacate an award by a dispute resolution professional (DRP) as well as an appeal award of a three-member DRP panel, which affirmed the DRP’s decision, was timely made within the forty-five-day time frame under N.J.S.A. 2A:23A-13(a), when it was filed 159 days after the DRP’s award, but forty-three days after the DRP panel’s award.”  The Law Division found the...

Sconiers v. United States, ___ F.3d ___ (3d Cir. 2018).  Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. §2401(b) (“FTCA”), a tort claim against the United States is “forever barred unless it is presented in writing to the appropriate Federal agency within two years after such claim accrues or unless action is begun within six months after the date of mailing, by certified or registered mail, of notice of final denial of the claim by the agency to which it was presented” (emphasis added).    Here, plaintiff sued the United States Postal Service within two years of the...