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

Administrative Regulation Was Not Authorized by Statute, and Thus Could Not Bar Tuition Aid Grant to U.S. Citizen Whose Parents Are Not Legal New Jersey Residents

A.Z. v. Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, 427 N.J. Super. 389 (App. Div. 2012). As this opinion by Judge Ostrer describes, though administrative agency regulations are entitled to a presumption...

Rutgers Violated Open Public Meetings Act in Some Respects, But That Statute Gave Plaintiff No Remedy

McGovern v. Rutgers, The State University, 211 N.J. 94 (2012). Plaintiff complained that the Board of Governors of Rutgers, The State University, violated the Open Public Meetings Act, N.J.S.A. 10:4-6...

A "Deadly" Administrative Law Decision

In re Challenge of New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association to Certain N.J.A.C. Amendments, 427 N.J. Super. 268 (App. Div. 2012). This case involved a challenge to amendments to administrative...

Foreign Citizen Whose Admission to the United States Limits Him to a Single Employer is Not "Available for Work" and Eligible for Unemployment Benefits When That Employer Discharges Him

Makutoff v. Board of Review, 427 N.J. Super. 218 (App. Div. 2012). Plaintiff, a Canadian citizen, was employed in this country under a limited work authorization issued by the Department...

Can an Insurer, Suspicious of Insurance Fraud, Require Health Providers Who Seek Reimbursement from the Insurer, to Supply Information About Their Ownership Structure and Billing Practices?

Selective Ins. Co. v. Hudson East Pain Management, 210 N.J. 597 (2012). Defendants provided medical treatment to patients who had personal injury protection ("PIP") insurance through plaintiff ("Selective"). The patients assigned their right to...

Child Support for Children Residing at College

Jacoby v. Jacoby, 427 N.J. Super. 109 (App. Div. 2012). Should child support change because the child has begun to live on campus at a college? Judge Lihotz, writing for the panel...

Expungement of Less Serious Criminal Convictions

In re Kollman, Jr., Petition for Expungement, 210 N.J. 557 (2012). "To afford a second chance to one-time offenders convicted of less serious offenses, who have led law-abiding lives since conviction, the...

The Appellate Division Limits DEP's Powers

Des Champs Laboratories, Inc. v. Martin, 427 N.J. Super. 84 (App. Div. 2012). This opinion by Judge Sabatino, for a unanimous Appellate Division panel, may lead to one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in years in the...

A Class Action Settlement Class is Reversed for Lack of Adequate Representation, But the Third Circuit Explains How to Cure the Problem

Dewey v. Volkswagen, A.G., 681 F.3d 170 (3d Cir. 2012). This class action case involved allegations that Volkswagen vehicles had defective sunroofs that allowed water to infiltrate into the interior of the...

A Perplexing Exercise in Interpreting an Administrative Regulation

US Bank, N.A. v. Hough, 210 N.J. 187 (2012). There seems to be infinite room for judges, or Justices, to disagree about how to interpret statutes or regulations. Sometimes, there are differences even...

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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."...