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...

Brunt v. Board of Trustees, Police & Firemen’s Retirement System, 455 N.J. Super. 357 (App. Div. 2018).  In general, except as specified by statute, court rule, or a contract between parties, New Jersey follows the “American Rule,” under which litigants must bear their own fees and costs.  This decision today by Judge Rose, in a case that was argued before her and Judge Ostrer, and then re-argued before those two judges and Judge Sabatino, is the latest reiteration of that principle. Plaintiff was serving as interim deputy chief of the Middletown Township Police...

Bowser v. Board of Trustees, Police and Firemens Retirement System, 455 N.J. Super. 165 (App. Div. 2018); Mattia v. Board of Trustees, Police and Firemens Retirement System, 455 N.J. Super. 217 (App. Div. 2018).  These two opinions, issued today by the same panel (though written by two different judges on that panel) illustrate that factual distinctions matter.  On the surface, the cases were similar: in each one, a corrections officer slipped and fell on ice in or on the way to the parking lot of his or her employer.  Each applied for accidental disability retirement benefits.  One...