NJ Appellate Law Blog – NJ Appellate Lawyer Bruce D. Greenberg blogs about Appeals and Appellate Law Practice

The First Half of August- Appellate Division Decisions

Continuing the catch-up process begun here and here, this post summarizes the five published Appellate Division decisions issued during the first half of August: Neuwirth v. State of New Jersey,...

Fraud Action Against Municipality and Its Officials Disputing Tax Assessment is Dismissed as Belated "Thinly-Veiled Tax Appeals"

Arsenis v. Borough of Bernardsville, 476 N.J. Super. 195 (App. Div. 2023). The first sentence of Judge DeAlmeida's opinion for the Appellate Division today summarized the issue on appeal in...

This Week's Supreme Court Decisions

In the last three days, the Supreme Court issued opinions in two criminal cases and one civil appeal. All three decisions were unanimous. Here are summaries of those rulings: State...

Plaintiffs Can Seek to Be Accompanied to a Defense Medical Examination by a Third Person or to Record the Examination, and (Contrary to the Appellate Division) Plaintiffs Do Not Bear the Burden of Pro

DiFiore v. Pezic, 254 N.J. 212 (2023). [Disclosure: Catherine B. Derenze, my colleague at Lite DePalma Greenberg & Afanador, LLC, argued before the Supreme Court in this case on behalf...

Two Law Against Discrimination Decisions by the Appellate Division

Beneduci v. Graham Curtin P.A., 476 N.J. Super. 73 (App. Div. 2023); Guzman v. M. Texeira Int'l, Inc., 476 N.J. Super. 64 (App. Div. 2023). The Appellate Division issued two...

School Board Has No Duty to Notify Tenured Full-Time Teachers Who Seek to Move to Part-Time That They May Lose Tenure Rights, But Boards are "Encourage[d]" To Do So

Parsells v. Somerville Bd. of Educ., 254 N.J. 152 (2023). Justice Fasciale wrote the Court's unanimous opinion in this case today. Plaintiff lost on the legal issue that prompted the...

No Need for Attorney Retainer Agreements to State Expressly That Billing Will be in Tenths of an Hour or Other Increments

Arbus, Maybruch & Goode, LLC v. Cohen, 475 N.J. Super. 509 (App. Div. 2023). In this suit by a law firm to collect its fee from a client (actually, an...

What is a "Class Action" Under the Class Action Fairness Act?

Erie Ins. Exchange v. Erie Indemnity Co., 68 F.4th 815 (3d Cir. 2023). As Judge Smith stated in his opinion in this case, the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005,...

A Class Action Waiver is Unenforceable Absent a Mandatory Arbitration Provision

Pace v. Hamilton Cove, 475 N.J. Super. 568 (App. Div. 2023). Class action waivers have infested numerous areas of our commercial lives, including cellphone contracts, banking agreements, and other documents...

An Unusual Restrictive Employment Covenant Opinion From the Appellate Division

Accounteks.net, Inc. v. CKR Law, LLP, 475 N.J. Super. 493 (App. Div. 2023). The Appellate Division sometimes publishes one version of an opinion and designates as unpublished a longer version...

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Sentencing Counsel's Limited Investigation of Defendant's Citizenship Was Not Constitutionally Ineffective in the Circumstances

State v. Hernandez-Peralta, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Justice Wainer Apter's decision today for a 5-2 Supreme Court majority began by phrasing the issue presented. "In this appeal, we consider whether sentencing counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to investigate defendant's citizenship status beyond asking him if he was a United States citizen and receiving an unequivocal ‘yes,' and therefore not advising him that his plea could make him subject to deportation." The majority found, based on the particular facts, that counsel was not constitutionally ineffective, reversing the two lower courts. Justice Noriega, joined by Justice Fasciale, dissented....

The 2025-26 General Assignment Order

Chief Justice Rabner announced the 2025-26 General Assignment Order. It is available here....

New Jersey's Charity Care Program for Hospitals is Not a Per Se Unconstitutional Taking of Property

Englewood Hospital & Medical Center v. State, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). New Jersey has had a charity care program, in one form or another, for 178 years. As Justice Fasciale summarized the current charity care program in his opinion for a unanimous Supreme Court, under the current program "hospitals cannot turn away a patient for inability to pay, N.J.S.A. 26:2H-18.64, and patients who qualify for charity care shall not be billed for services rendered, N.J.A.C. 10:52-11.4. Instead, ‘disproportionate share hospitals' (DSHs), or hospitals that serve a disproportionate number of low-income patients, see N.J.S.A. 26:2H-18.52, receive annual subsidies from the Health Care Subsidy Fund (HCSF) in exchange for providing charity care, see N.J.S.A. 26:2H-18.52, .58, .58d."...

A Municipal Court Administrator is Employed by the Township, Not the Administrative Office of the Courts

Palmisano v. State of New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2025). The opening paragraph of Judge Marczyk's opinion for the Appellate Division well encapsulates what the appeal was about and what the result was. "Plaintiff Lindsay Palmisano appeals from the trial court's April 1, 2024 order dismissing her complaint with prejudice against defendant State of New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts and Municipal Division (AOC) pursuant to Rule 4:6-2(e). The primary issue on appeal is whether plaintiff, a municipal court administrator, is an employee of the AOC, thereby allowing her to assert a claim against the AOC under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD), N.J.S.A. 10:5-1 to -49. Based on our review of the record and the applicable legal principles, we conclude plaintiff was employed by Vernon Township (Township), not the AOC, and, therefore, we affirm."...