Wallace v. JFK Hartwyck at Oak Tree, Inc.

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

GARIBALDI, J.

In this appeal, as in Hartsfield v. Fantini, 149 N.J. 611, 695 A.2d 259, also decided today, defendant JFK Hartwyck at Oak Tree, Inc. (Hartwyck) asks us to decide when an attorney’s mistake, resulting in failure to appeal an arbitration decision within thirty days, constitutes “extraordinary circumstances” sufficient to allow a party to file for a trial de novo out of time. As in Hartsfield, we find that an attorney’s “mere carelessness” or “lack of proper diligence” is insufficient to relax the thirty-day rule under the “extraordinary…