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

The End of a Six-Year Supreme Court Dispute? Governor Christie Nominates Walter Timpone to the Court

The lengthy saga of Governor Christie and the Supreme Court may finally be coming to an end. Without recapping the entire history, in February 2016, Governor Christie nominated Monmouth County...

Supreme Court Will Review Conley v. Guerrero

The Supreme Court has granted certification to review the Appellate Division's decision in Conley v. Guerrero, 443 N.J. Super. 62 (App. Div. 2015). The Appellate Division's decision was discussed here....

Supreme Court Will Review LAD, Fraudulent Conveyance, and Two Criminal Cases

In addition to the Supreme Court's grant of review in a case involving the termination of a contract of sale of residential real estate, discussed here, the Court announced in...

The Anniversary of Petrillo v. Bachenberg (Liability of Attorneys to Non-Clients)

On this date in 1995, the Supreme Court decided Petrillo v. Bachenberg, 139 N.J. 472 (1995). In the first sentence of his majority opinion, Justice Pollock framed the issue as...

Allegedly No Goodness to be Thankful for at TGI Friday's for Drink Consumers, But Class Certification Gets Reversed

Dugan v. TGI Fridays, Inc., 445 N.J. Super. 59 (App. Div. 2016). This putative consumer class action has a long procedural history, including a previous appeal to the Appellate Division,...

Governor Christie Renominates Judge Bauman for the Supreme Court

Yesterday, Governor Christie announced that he was nominating Monmouth County Superior Court Judge David Bauman to fill the Supreme Court seat currently occupied by Judge Cuff. The announcement was a...

February 29: An Anniversary in Civil Rights Act Law

February 29 comes around only every four years (all right, every four years except for certain years that end in double zeros). February 29 was the birthdate of Frederic, the...

Editorial: The United States Senate Should Take Up President Obama's Supreme Court Nomination, When Made

Within hours of the death of Justice Scalia, talk turned to who President Obama might nominate to fill his seat, and whether the United States Senate would consider that nomination...

New Jersey Sports Gambling Law Case Argued En Banc

As discussed here, the en banc Third Circuit was to hear oral argument in this case today, and it did so this morning. The audio of that oral argument, which...

Proposed Changes to New Jersey Appellate Rules

The Supreme Court has published for comments the report of its Civil Practice Committee. The report is available here. The Committee has proposed revisions to three appellate rules. There are...

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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."...