So Far, So Good

I have practiced law for twenty-six years.  Every now and again, one of my cases ends up in our appellate courts.  I have been exceptionally lucky that far more often than not, I am defending an order won below at the trial level and not asking the appellate court to overturn it.  

In New Jersey, our state court system is structured so that between our trial courts and our court of law resort, the New Jersey Supreme Court, is our Appellate Division.  While there are several different avenues by which a matter demands the attention of our Appellate Division, in my practice the avenue most-often-pursued is an appeal filed from an order entering a final judgment at the trial level, which is to say an order whose entry resolves all still-contested issues by and between all parties.  

Far more often than not in my matters, our Appellate Division has entered an "unpublished" opinion and order, which limits its reach to the parties and the issues of my case.  However, last week, right before the Memorial Day holiday weekend, a three-member panel of appellate judges handed up a published opinion in one of my cases, which opinion preserved the relief I had won for my clients in the trial court.  

I am hopeful that my clients' win in the Appellate Division shall not be short-lived.  Since the panel's decision was unanimous, the plaintiffs are not permitted to automatically appeal it to our Supreme Court.  They do, however, have the right to file a Petition for Certification to the Court, asking it to take up their case and to overturn the Appellate Division, which petition they must file not later than twenty days from the Appellate Division's May 21, 2020 decision.  

My adversary is not only a very talented attorney but he is a friend.  We attended law school together at Seton Hall almost thirty years ago and are fellow members of the Class of 1994.  Whether he shall file a Petition for Certification for his clients is something that I shall soon learn.  

Stay tuned.