Royster v. New Jersey State Police, 227 N.J. 482 (2017).  Today’s decision is a unique one.  Writing for the majority of five Justices (Justices LaVecchia, Patterson, Fernandez-Vina, Solomon, and Timpone), Justice Solomon affirmed the decision of the Appellate Division that the New Jersey State Police could properly assert the doctrine of sovereign immunity for the first time in a seven-year litigation in a post-trial motion for judgment.  The jury had awarded plainti

Chassen v. Fidelity Nat’l Financial, Inc., 836 F.3d 291 (3d Cir. 2016).  [Disclosure:  I was an expert witness for plaintiffs in this case, but my Declaration and deposition testimony was not the subject of, or referred to in, this opinion].  This was a putative class action involving allegedly improper charges, ranging from $70 to $350, stemming from the recording of deeds and mortgages.  Though there were arbitration clauses in defendants’

In re Adoption of a Child by J.E.V. and D.G.V., 226 N.J. 90 (2016).  In this unanimous opinion, authored by Chief Justice Rabner, the Supreme Court ruled that an indigent parent who faces the termination of her parental rights in a private adoption proceeding has a right to appointed counsel under the due process guarantee of Article I, section 1 of the New Jersey Constitution.  The Court affirmed the ruling of the Appellate Division below, which had reversed the