Several days out of the office last week, and work on a large appellate brief, have left me well behind our appellate courts, who have produced a number of decisions in that interim.  To try to catch up, here are summaries of some of those rulings by the Appellate Division:

Leggette v. Government Employees Ins. Co., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2017).  This opinion by Judge Lihotz addressed in detail the Deemer Statute, N.J.S.A. 17:28-1.4.  That statute 

New Jerseey Division of Child Permanency & Protection v. J.L.G., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2015), aff’d o.b., ___ N.J. ___ (2017).  This abuse and neglect case resulted in a 2-1 split in the Appellate Division.  Judge Simonelli, joined by Judge Leone, upheld the ruling of the Family Part that defendant abused a seven-year old girl when he “unreasonably allow[ed] the excessive corporal punishment by the child’s mo

Ricci v. Ricci, 448 N.J. Super. 546 (App. Div. 2017).  As Judge Lihotz observed in the opening sentence of her opinion for the Appellate Division in this case, Newburgh v. Arrigo, 88 N.J. 529 (1982), established the principle that “the privilege of parenthood carries with it the duty to assure a necessary education for children.”  That duty applies, however, only to children who are not emancipated.  “A determination of emancipation is a legal issue, imposed when the