Today is a court holiday for New Jersey state and federal courts. That affords an opportunity to catch up with this week’s published opinions from the Supreme Court,, the Appellate Division, and the Third Circuit. Here are summaries of those rulings (the Third Circuit also issued some published immigration decisions this week, which are not covered here): Glassman v. Friedel, ___ N.J. ____ (2021). In this unanimous opinion by Justice Patterson, the Court “address[ed] the allocation of damages in cases in which a plaintiff asserts claims against successive tortfeasors and settles...

Jefferson v. Lias, ___ F.4th ___ (3d Cir. 2021). Back in 2019, this post discussed a circumstance where two of the three judges on a Third Circuit panel filed an opinion concurring in the panel’s unanimous opinion, of which those two judges were, of course, also part. Yesterday, a panel of three other Third Circuit judges went that one better in this case, which was brought under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. 1983, and on other theories. The case involved “a police shooting that occurred during the course of a car chase,” as Judge Restrepo summarized it in his unanimous...

Judge Ambro has announced that he will take senior status, effective upon the confirmation of his successor. He is the third judge to do so during the term of President Biden (the others are Chief Judge Smith and former Chief Judge McKee), which enables the President to nominate a new judge to fill Judge Ambro’s seat. President Biden has not yet nominated anyone to fill the seats of Judges McKee and Smith, so there are three slots to be filled. Judge Ambro is from Delaware. So it is to be expected that his successor will also be from the First State, which is also President...