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

Burgos v. New Jersey (Public Employee Pension Case) Argued

Today, the Supreme Court of New Jersey heard oral argument in this important case. The procedural history of the case is discussed here. The argument ran from just after 10...

The Supreme Court Grants Direct Certification in Burgos v. New Jersey, the Public Employee Pension Case

Burgos v. New Jersey is a case that asserts that the State's failure to make the full amortization payment required by statute as part of the State's contribution to the pension...

NJSBA Task Force: Don't Change the Process for Supreme Court Appointments

In the wake of Governor Christie's decisions not to reappoint Justices Wallace and Hoens, the New Jersey State Bar Association convened a Task Force to study judicial independence. The Task...

Law of the Case Doctrine Does Not Extend From One Party to Another Party Not in Privity

State v. K.P.S., 221 N.J. 266 (2015). Two defendants who had been charged in the same indictment with many of the same crimes sought to suppress certain evidence. The Law...

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...

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...

Supreme Court Will Review Digital Billboard Ban

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted certification to review E&J Equities, LLC v. Franklin Tp. Bd. of Adj., 437 N.J. Super. 490 (App. Div. 2014). The question presented, as...

Regulation of Prisoners' Beards

Holt v. Hobbs, ___ U.S. ___ (2015). As discussed here, this case reached the Supreme Court via a handwritten petition for certiorari by a Muslim prisoner in an Arkansas state...

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...

No Civil Rights Act Claim by Demoted Municipal Employee Where He Did Not Actually Exercise First Amendment Rights

Heffernan v. City of Paterson, 777 F.3d 147 (3d Cir. 2015). [Disclosure: Victor A. Afanador and Susana Cruz Hodge, my colleagues at Lite DePalma Greenberg, LLC, represented the successful appellees...

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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."...