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

The Supreme Court Will Review Three Published Appellate Division Decisions, and One Unpublished One

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in four more cases. In three of those appeals, the Court granted petitions for certification. In the fourth case, the Court...

Shareholder Requests to Inspect Corporate Books and Records

Feuer v. Merck & Co., Inc., 238 N.J. 27 (2019). As discussed here, the Appellate Division, in an opinion by Judge Ostrer that was reported at 455 N.J. Super. 69...

When New Issues Arise on Appeal, Appellate Division Should Conduct Oral Argument Even if No Party Originally Requested It

State in the Interest of D.M., 238 N.J. 2 (2019). In this juvenile delinquency case, neither the State nor defendant sought oral argument in the Appellate Division. The State, the...

Charitable Immunity Sweeps Broadly to Protect Monmouth University

Green v. Monmouth University, 237 N.J. 516 (2019). In a unanimous opinion by Justice Fernandez-Vina today, the Supreme Court resolved a case that had divided the Appellate Division, as discussed...

The Supreme Court Takes Three More Cases

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted review in three new cases. One of them is before the Court on leave to appeal, while the other two involve...

The Supreme Court Decides Docket No. A-1-2018, Based on Plain Language of the Check Cashers Regulatory Act of 1993

Garden State Check Cashing Service, Inc. v. New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, 237 N.J. 482 (2019). As discussed here, this was the very first appeal of the current...

A Qualified Immunity Case and a Tort Claims Act/Legal Malpractice Case for the Supreme Court

Add two more cases to the Supreme Court's docket. One of them is before the Court as of right, by virtue of a dissent in the Appellate Division. In the...

Appellate Courts Can Decline to Review Arguments Made Below as to Other Issues, But Not as to the Issue Actually on Appeal

Chirino v. Proud 2 Haul, Inc., 458 N.J. Super. 308 (App. Div. 2017), aff'd o.b., 237 N.J. 440 (2019). There is a long-settled general rule that an appellate court will...

Insubstantial Constitutional Issues Don't Afford an Appeal to the Supreme Court as of Right

On this date in 1965, the Supreme Court decided Tidewater Oil Co. v. Mayor & Council of Borough of Carteret, 44 N.J. 338 (1965), a municipal land use case. That...

Two More for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in two more cases. In the first matter, State v. Medina, the question presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk's...

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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."...