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

At Thanksgiving, Gratitude for an Independent Judiciary

The current occupant of the White House lost the 2016 Presidential election by nearly 3,000,000 votes. He occupies the White House because the law (Article 2, Section 1 of, and the...

Fox Rothschild Case, and Two Criminal Appeals, Come to the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in three cases. Two of them are criminal matters. The third involves a claim against the Fox Rothschild law firm on...

Back in Action!

Due to travel over most of the past two weeks (and getting "back in the game" once having returned), there have been no posts here. But the courts have been...

A Big (In Every Way) Decision Under the New Jersey Constitution's Legislative Review Clause

Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO v. New Jersey Civil Service Commission, 234 N.J. 483 (2018). In one of the biggest constitutional decisions of the current term, an unusually divided Supreme...

The Federal Tort Claims Act Statute of Limitations

Sconiers v. United States, 896 F.3d 595 (3d Cir. 2018). Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. §2401(b) ("FTCA"), a tort claim against the United States is "forever barred...

No "Dead End" for New Jersey Civil Rights Act Plaintiff, So Her NJCRA Claim Fails

Harz v. Borough of Spring Lake, 234 N.J. 317 (2018). The New Jersey Civil Rights Act, N.J.S.A. 10:6-1 to -2 ("NJCRA") is, in general, the New Jersey analog to the...

New Jersey Wins on Sports Betting in the U.S. Supreme Court

Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, 138 S.Ct. 1461 (2018). This blog has covered the history of the State of New Jersey's efforts to overcome the Professional and Amateur Sports...

Complaint as to Issuance of Bonds for Statehouse Renovation Was Moot, But Failed on the Merits Regardless

Wisniewski v. Murphy, 454 N.J. Super. 508 (App. Div. 2018). In 2017, the State Capitol Joint Management Commission ("JMC") resolved to renovate the Statehouse, the building that houses (among other...

ACLU v. Hendricks Goes Back to the Secretary of Higher Education to Develop a Full Administrative Record

American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey v. Hendricks, 233 N.J. 181 (2018). In 2016, in a decision reported at 445 N.J. Super. 452 (App. Div. 2016), and discussed here,...

Digging Out

This past Monday, I argued two appeals in the Supreme Court of New Jersey. They were the Accutane matters discussed and . In the period leading up to those arguments,...

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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."...