Employee Choices for Challenging Discipline In a recent unpublished decision, the Appellate Division of the Superior Court addressed the employment law issue of jurisdiction for appealing discipline of tenured school employees. When a New Jersey government employee faces discipline, there are several avenues for relief depending on the nature of…
New Jersey Lawyers Blog
Appellate Division Issues First Published Opinion on the New Jersey Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act New Jersey employment law has long been in the forefront of protecting employees’ civil rights and prohibiting discrimination in the workplace. While Congress did not pass Title VII until 1964, the Legislature passed the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination…
McLaughlin & Nardi, LLC Attorneys Successfully Reversed a Decision to Remove an Applicant from a Civil Service List for Appointment as a Jersey City Police Officer
On December 6, 2019, the New Jersey Civil Service Commission recently reviewed and rescinded its September 5, 2018 decision which removed an applicant’s name from an eligible list for Jersey City police officer. The case was argued by Maurice W. McLaughlin, Esq., and Robert K. Chewning, Esq. After the Civil…
Beneficiary Designations Are an Important Part of Your Estate Plan
Many financial accounts provide the account holder with the option to designate beneficiaries. If a beneficiary is designated on a financial account, upon the death of the account holder, the assets to the account do not pass according to the provisions of the decedent’s Last Will and Testament, but instead…
Timing as Circumstantial Evidence of Retaliation in Employment Law Cases
When facing claims of retaliation for reports on objections about discrimination under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination or Title VII of the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 (or for whistleblowing under New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act), courts are often faced with the situation where there is no…
“Independent Contractor” May be a Disappearing Classification for New Jersey Workers
Small business and contractors often hire independent contractors rather than employees for certain projects and services. Generally, this allows the business to avoid responsibility and expense related to withholding and paying taxes, and obtaining insurance for those workers. However, case law in New Jersey over the years has slowly been…
Appellate Division Continues Trend of Limiting Enforceability of Arbitration Clauses in Residential New Jersey Construction Contracts
In October 2019, the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey issued an opinion in the case of Becker v. Ollie Solcum & Son, Inc., examining the enforceability of an arbitration clause in a construction project. The decision continued the trend in New Jersey of limiting enforcement of…
Third Circuit Court of Appeals Rules that Some Third-Party Payments to Employees are Properly Included in the Calculation of Overtime Rates
In the case of Secretary of United States Department of Labor vs. Bristol Excavating, Inc., the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, recently issued an important, precedential opinion on when payments by third-parties need to be included by employers in the calculation of their employees’ overtime pay…
New Jersey Supreme Court Rejects Newark School District’s Firing of Tenured Secretary in Major Public Employment Law Decision
Both New Jersey’s tenure laws in Title 18A, which govern employees in New Jersey’s public schools, and the New Jersey Civil Service Act in Title 11A and Civil Service regulations are designed to ensure that government employment decisions, such as hiring, firing, promotion, etc., are made based on merit rather…
Equal Pay Act
Governor Murphy signed New Jersey’s Equal Pay Act into law in 2018. The NJEPA takes a necessary step in making pay discrepancies in the workplace more transparent with the hopes that this will address the pay differential between white men minorities, and women. Essentially, it bars any penalty to any…