After issuing only one published opinion in the Term that began on September 1 (a well-reasoned opinion by Judge Rose in Carbone v. Bd. of Trustees, ___ N.J. Super. __, 2026 N.J. Super. LEXIS 79 (App. Div. Sept. 11, 2026)), the Appellate Division issued four published rulings in the final third of October. Here are summaries:...
Best Lawyers in America® has listed my firm's Appellate Practice group in Tier 1 of Best Lawyers' New Jersey rankings. As the leader of that practice, I congratulate all the members of the Appellate Practice group on this recognition. I'm also very proud of my colleagues in the other practice groups that received Tier recognition in Best Lawyers....
Association for Government Responsibility, Ethics and Transparency v. Borough of Mantoloking, ___ N.J. ___ (2026). The issue in this Open Public Records Act ("OPRA") case, which also implicated the common law right of access, was whether the identity of the sender of an email is subject to disclosure under either body of law. By a 5-2 vote, the Court said the sender's identity was a government record subject to OPRA and not protected by the work product doctrine. But the Court held that disclosure was not required, as the sender's reasonable expectation of privacy outweighed the interest in disclosure....
Chief Justice Rabner announced that Judges DeAngelis and Zazzali-Hogan have been temporarily assigned to the Appellate Division. Judge DeAngelis will sit on Part E, while Judge Zazzali-Hogan will join Part G....
The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in three new cases. They involve very diverse areas of the law....
Yesterday marked the sixteenth anniversary of this blog. It has been a great year, with more readers, more subscribers, and the placement of posts on LinkedIn for the first time, so that readers have an additional place to find this blog's posts. And the blog reached the milestone of 2,500 posts. As always, my thanks go to the many jurists, attorneys, law faculty and students, and "just plain citizens" who are interested enough in New Jersey appellate law developments to take the time to read this blog. On to year 17!...
Chief Justice Rabner announced that Lisa D. Bigony has been named Appellate Division Deputy Clerk for Case Processing, effective today. In that role, according to a press release, she will be "responsible for oversight of the various units of case processing, including paralegal and legal, case processing, Civil Appeals Settlement Program, public access unit, calendaring, final disposition, and records and reception."...
The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in Dill v. Offray. The question presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk's office, is "Under the circumstances presented, should the Appellate Division have remanded the matter to the trial court after it held that defendant had standing to assert a counterclaim covering the period of time when the prior beneficiary of the trust was alive, and did defendant state a cognizable claim under the Prudent Investor Act ["PIA"], N.J.S.A. 3B:20-11.1 to -11.12?"...
On Tuesday, September 29, judges on the Appellate Division's Part D will hear oral argument in In the Matter of the Applicability of Certain Statutes and Regulations to Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. The issue is whether New Jersey's Secretary of Higher Education wrongly determined that Rutgers is obligated to comply with regulations promulgated by the Secretary in 2022 that require colleges and universities subject to the Secretary's jurisdiction to go through a process of having their programmatic decisions approved by the Secretary....
The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in two new matters. One of them involves a grant of certification, while the other is before the Court on the grant of leave to appeal....
