Chief Justice Rabner issued two orders that affect Part D of the Appellate Division. One of those orders notes that Judge Alvarez is to retire on pension on March 27, 2022, and states that she is being recalled for temporary service through August 31, 2022. During that period, Judge Alvarez will be assigned to Part D “and will continue to serve as presiding judge of In the Matter of Theresa E. Mullen, a Judge of the Superior Court of the State of New Jersey Supreme Court of New Jersey, Docket No. 085531, pursuant to the Court’s Panel Assignment Order of September 29, 2021.”...

Chief Justice Rabner has issued the General Assignment Order for the coming Term. It is available here. At the Appellate Division level, the headline is that the number of Parts has been reduced from eight to seven, encompassing a total of thirty judges. Two of the Parts, Parts C and E, have five judges, while the other Parts have four judges, as in the past. Unlike in several past years, there is no provision for any “Temporary Assignees” on any Part. That is despite the fact that the thirty-judge composition of the Appellate Division for 2021-22 is smaller than the...

The power outage resulting from last week’s storm put a crimp in much of that week. So it is time once again to catch up with our Supreme Court and Appellate Division, each of whom took highly consequential actions during that time. Some of those are summarized below. State v. G.E.P., 243 N.J. 362 (2020). This case (actually, four consolidated cases) addressed whether and to what extent the Court’s decision in State v. J.L.G., 234 N.J. 265 (2018), should apply retroactively. In J.L.G., the Court “reassessed” its prior decision in State v. J.Q., 130 N.J. 554 (1993),...