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

Child Support for Multiple Families

Harte v. Hand, 433 N.J. Super. 457 (App. Div. 2013). Today's opinion, by Judge Koblitz, in these consolidated cases addresses the circumstance in which a father has child support obligations...

Residential Development That Includes Mostly Market-Rate Units and Some Affordable Units is Not Inherently Beneficial

Advance at Branchburg, II, LLC v. Branchburg Tp. Bd. of Adj., 433 N.J. Super. 247 (App. Div. 2013). The normal, strict standards for a use variance, as expressed in Medici...

Delaware Chancery Court's State-Sponsored Arbitration Program is Held Unconstitutional

Delaware Coalition for Open Government, Inc. v. Strine, 733 F.3d 510 (3d Cir. 2013). It is rare that judges, and a court, are defendants in a lawsuit. It is even...

A Primer About the Attorney-Client Privilege

Hedden v. Kean University, 434 N.J. Super. 1 (App. Div. 2013). This interlocutory appeal, which resulted in a 2-1 decision by the Appellate Division, involved issues of attorney-client privilege. In an...

Same Sex Marriages May Proceed, as Supreme Court Denies Stay Pending Appeal

Today, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion, written by Chief Justice Rabner, denying the State's request to stay the Law Division's ruling that allows same sex marriages in New...

Privacy: The Right to Freedom From Unwarranted Intrusion

Soliman v. The Kushner Companies, Inc., 433 N.J. Super. 153 (App. Div. 2013). Defendants secretly installed hidden surveillance cameras in bathrooms in an office building that they operated. The stated reason...

A Wise Decision Under the Consumer Fraud Act

D'Agostino v. Maldonado, 216 N.J. 168 (2013). The requirement of the Consumer Fraud Act, N.J.S.A. 56:8-19 ("CFA"), that a consumer sustain an "ascertainable loss" as a prerequisite to recovery has...

No Jury Trial Right Under the Insurance Fraud Prevention Act

Allstate New Jersey Ins. Co. v. Lajara, 433 N.J. Super. 20 (App. Div. 2013). Plaintiff insurers sued a number of defendants under the Insurance Fraud Prevention Act, N.J.S.A. 17:33A-1 to...

Judging and Comedic Performances Do Not Mix

IMO Advisory Letter No. 3-11 and Opinion No. 12-08 of the Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Extrajudicial Activities, 215 N.J. 495 (2013). Since 2008, Vincent Sicari has been a part-time...

New Emergent Application Procedures in the Appellate Division

The Appellate Division has announced new procedures for emergent applications. The Notice to the Bar that details those procedures is available here. The key change is that the Appellate Division...

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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."...