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

No Personal Jurisdiction Over New York Doctor Who Treated New Jersey Patient Only in New York

Pullen v. Galloway, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2019). This medical malpractice/wrongful death appeal involved the question of whether New Jersey state courts had personal jurisdiction over defendant doctors...

Did Denial of a Trial Adjournment to Allow a Criminal Defendant to Replace a Public Defender With Private Counsel Deprive Defendant of His Constitutional Right to Counsel? The Supreme Court Will Decid

The Supreme Court announced late on Friday that it has granted certification in State v. Maisonet. The question presented on this appeal, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk's office,...

Mandatory Minimum Prison Term for Driving With a License Suspended After Multiple DWI's is Constitutional

State v. Pimentel, 461 N.J. Super. 468 (App. Div. 2019). N.J.S.A. 2C:40-26 prohibits driving with a license suspended due to a second or subsequent conviction for driving while intoxicated. The...

Internet Transactions and Personal Jurisdiction

Jardim v. Overley, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2019). This opinion yesterday, by Judge Sabatino, applied a venerable doctrine in a new context. As Judge Sabatino put it, the...

The Supreme Court Loads Up on New Appeals

The Supreme Court usually adds new appeals in relatively small groups. But its latest tranche of grants of review consists of eight new cases, implicating numerous different area of the...

Stays Pending Appeal- An Anniversary

Since this is an appellate law blog, its "anniversary" posts (as well as all or virtually all others) deal with appellate decisions. Today's post is an exception, in that it...

Busy Days at the Third Circuit

Though the Supreme Court of New Jersey and the Appellate Division are only just beginning to ramp up in the new Term, the Third Circuit has been pumping out published...

Third Circuit Roundup

Even as the Appellate Division wound down the number of its published opinions in the second half of August, the Third Circuit seemed to rev up its publication of opinions....

The Supreme Court Takes Up Five More Cases

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted review in five more cases. In four of those matters, the Court granted certification. The fifth case will be before the...

The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association and a Landmark Decision in Constitutional Law

Forty years ago today, the Supreme Court decided State v. Celmer, 80 N.J. 405 (1979), a case that arose out of he conviction of defendant on charges of DWI, speeding,...

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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."...