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

The Supreme Court Takes Up Goldfarb v. Solimine

Late last week, the Supreme Court granted certification in Goldfarb v. Solimine. The opinion of the Appellate Division, reported at 460 N.J. Super. 22 (App. Div. 2019), was discussed here....

A Committee on Character Anniversary

On this date in 1993, the Supreme Court decided In re Peterman, 134 N.J. 201 (1993). [Disclosure: I was a member of the Supreme Court Committee on Character for fifteen...

Tenure Rights Vindicated in the Supreme Court

Miller v. State Operated School District of the City of Newark, ___ N.J. ___ (2019). Today, in a per curiam opinion, the Supreme Court affirmed, by a 5-2 vote, the...

Three More Cases for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced this afternoon that it has granted review in three more cases. Each involves a grant of certification. In Gramiccioni v. Department of Law & Public Safety,...

Public Employee Pension Applications May be Reopened by Beneficiaries, Even if Those Applications Have Not Been Approved

Minsavage v. Board of Trustees, Teachers' Pension & Annuity Fund, ___ N.J. ___ (2019). This per curiam opinion addressed the question "whether a widow can modify the retirement application of...

Five More Cases, Including a Certified Question From the Third Circuit, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has granted review in five more appeals. One of them involves a question certified to it by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, one is before 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...

The U.S. Supreme Court Adopts (and Adapts) a New Jersey Supreme Court Oral Argument Practice

This morning, the first Monday in October, the Supreme Court of the United States gets back in business. The "Guide for Counsel in Cases to be Argued Before the Supreme...

A "Pennysaver" Anniversary

On this date in 1984, the Supreme Court decided two cases, Fairlawn Shopper, Inc. v. Director, Div. of Taxation, 98 N.J. 64 (1984), and Today Newspapers, Inc. v. Director, Div....

The Supreme Court Will Review Two More Published Appellate Division Opinions

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in two more cases, one civil appeal and one criminal matter. Both of the new appeals involve issues of expert testimony,...

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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."...