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

State v. Czachor

Thirty five years ago today, the Supreme Court decided State v. Czachor, 82 N.J. 392 (1980). In an opinion by Justice Handler, the Court revolutionized the criminal law by abandoning...

A Tour (De Force) Through the Evidence Rules as Applied to Expert Testimony

James v. Ruiz, 440 N.J. Super. 45 (App. Div. 2015). This opinion by Judge Sabatino is like the law school evidence class that some of us wish we had taken....

The Supreme Court Revisits the Constitutionality of the Redevelopment Law

62-64 Main Street, LLC v. Hackensack Mayor & Council, 221 N.J. 129 (2015). The Local Redevelopment and Housing Law, N.J.S.A. 40A:12A-1 to -73, defines when an area is blighted and...

The Anniversary of Lopez v. Swyer

On this date in 1973, the Supreme Court decided Lopez v. Swyer, 62 N.J. 267 (1973). That opinion, written by Justice Mountain for a unanimous Court, applied and extended the...

A Venerable Decision Dismissing an Improperly Filed Interlocutory Appeal

As discussed (perhaps among other places) here, the Appellate Division has long frowned on attempts to file appeals as of right when there is in fact no final judgment on all...

Remittitur, "Feel of the Case," and "Shocks the Conscience"

Mickens v. Misdom, 438 N.J. Super. 531 (App. Div. 2015). Today's opinion, by Judge Fisher, affirms the ruling of a Union County trial judge (apparently, Judge Hely, based on a...

The Dawn of Regulation of Cable Television

Forty years ago today, when cable television was in relative infancy, the Appellate Division decided In re Promulgation of Rules of Practice and Regulations for the Office of Cable Television,...

The Rent Control Trilogy

On this date thirty-nine years ago, the Supreme Court decided three seminal rent conrol cases, which have come to be known as the "rent control trilogy." Troy Hills Village v....

A Decision of First Impression: Tort Liability for Injuries in Youth Sports

C.J.R. v. G.A., 438 N.J. Super. 387 (App. Div. 2014). Near the end of a closely-contested lacrosse game in a youth recreational league for less advanced players, a twelve-year-old player suffered a fractured arm after an eleven-year-old...

Justice Robert L. Clifford (1924-2014)

Justice Robert L. Clifford died on Saturday, November 29. He was 89 years old. Justice Clifford served on the Supreme Court for twenty one years, from 1973 to 1994. During...

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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."...