As usually occurs with the current Term nearing its end, the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division have issued relatively few opinions in the second half of August. Here are summaries of those opinions (in addition to this one, which I argued for the successful plaintiffs): Rivera v. The Valley Hospital, Inc., ___ N.J. ___ (2022). The issue in this case, which was before the Supreme Court on leave to appeal, was whether plaintiffs’ evidence in support of punitive damages was sufficient to defeat a defense motion to dismiss the punitive damages claim. As Justice Pierre-Louis noted in...

The Supreme Court has been functioning for months with four Justices, plus Judge Fuentes on temporary assignment. Judge Fuentes is due to retire on September 1. At that time, the Court will lack a quorum, as Article VI, section 2, paragraph 1 provides that five members of the Court shall constitute a quorum. As a result, Chief Justice Rabner today issued an order temporarily assigning Judges Fisher, Sabatino, and Fasciale to the Supreme Court, effective September 1. (Judge Messano, the Chief Judge of the Appellate Division, waived this temporary assignment, according to the order). That...

Most Appellate Division oral arguments occur in a few locations, such as Trenton, Newark, Morristown, and Hackensack (though that is not an exhaustive list). Occasionally, however, the Appellate Division sits in other locations, in order to permit “an opportunity for students, attorneys, and the public to observe the appellate process.” The Appellate Division announced that a panel consisting of Judges Messano, Natali, and Smith will sit in Freehold on August 16, 2022, beginning at 9:30 AM. The Appellate Division has sat there before. The specific address is the Monmouth County...