The Supreme Court announced late yesterday that it has adopted a number of amendments to the New Jersey Court Rules, effective as of September 1, 2018. The full list of rule changes can be found here.
A number of appellate rules, including Rules 2:2-1, 2:2-2, 2:2-4, and others, have been amended, and often re-numbered, to eliminate references to death penalty cases. Rule 2:9-12, which addressed proportionality review in capital cases, has been repealed entirely. The death penalty was abolished in 2007, so the Court has now conformed the Rules accordingly.
Rule 2:4-1 has been amended to state that appeals are to be “filed” within certain time frames. The prior version stated that appeals were to be “taken” within those limits. A new Rule 2:4-1(a)(2) has been added. That provision states that “Direct appeals from judgments of conviction and sentences shall be filed within 45 days of entry of trial court orders granting petitions for post-conviction relief pursuant to R. 3 :22-11 under the limited circumstances where defendant has demonstrated ineffective assistance of counsel in trial counsel’s failure to file a direct appeal from the judgment of conviction and sentence upon defendant’s timely request.”
Rule 2:6-1(a)(1), which contains, among many other things, an appendix requirement unique to appeals from rulings on motions for summary judgment, has been amended. The previous version of that portion of that rule began “If the appeal is from a summary judgment ….” The amendment says instead “If the appeal is from a disposition of a motion for summary judgment ….” Presumably, that change is meant to make clear that the particular appendix requirement applies to summary judgment appeals whether the court below granted or denied summary judgment, an important clarification.
Rule 2:11-1, which governs oral argument, is the subject of some substantive changes. The maximum time for oral argument in the Appellate Division, which previously was 30 minutes, has been reduced to 15 minutes, “[u]nless the court determines more time is necessary.” The 30 minute maximum remains unchanged for the Supreme Court, again subject to the Court’s determination that more time is required.
The language in Rule 2:11-1 regarding how many attorneys may argue for a party has been amended to say that “No more than two attorneys will be heard for each party in the Appellate Division, and one attorney will be heard for each party in the Supreme Court, unless the Court otherwise orders.” Previously, the rule had simply stated that “No more than two attorneys will be heard for each party,” language that applied to both the Appellate Division and the Supreme Court. The adopted amendment did not go as far as had been proposed.
Finally, Rule 2:11-4 has been amended. That rule deals with attorneys’ fees on appeal. The rule previously permitted an appellate court to remand the appellate fee issue to the trial court for disposition. The amendment adds that, in administrative agency matters, the remand can be to “the agency that is serving solely as the forum and that has the authority to award counsel fees against litigants appearing in that forum.”
There are also what appear to be some purely grammatical changes. One such change is in Rule 2:5-1(e)(2), which now refers to appendices “to” the Rules instead of “of” the Rules. Other such changes appear in Rule 2:9-4, which relates to bail after a criminal conviction.