The Annual Report of the New Jersey Courts for the court year 2017-18 has been published and is available here. The Report is full of useful information about the judiciary at all levels and is well worth reading in full.
As relevant to appellate practice, the report contains some summary figures regarding the activities of the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division. A graphic about the work of the Supreme Court states that there were 1,232 petitions for certification filed, and that 99 such petitions, motions for direct certification, and motions for appeal on leave were granted. There were 1,753 motions filed, of which 1,752 were disposed of. A total of 74 appeals were argued at the Court. The Court filed 65 opinions.
The Appellate Division had much higher volume, in accordance with the system’s design. According to the graphic summarizing the Appellate Division’s year, the Appellate Division decided 6,624 appeals. There were 3,325 opinions filed, including 153 published opinions. The Appellate Division saw 6,010 motions filed, and its judges decided 9,672 motions.
The motion figures for the Appellate Division do not match exactly with figures made available earlier this fall. It is possible that the two sets of data measure, to some extent, different time periods or use different criteria.
The report also highlights nine “New Appointments” to the Appellate Division. Those judges, whose pictures also appear in the report, are (in alphabetical order, as they appear there) Judges DeAlmeida, Firko, Geiger, Mawla, Mayer, Mitterhoff, Moynihan, Natoli, and Rose. This group of newer judges represents more than 25% of the total membership of the Appellate Division.