New Jersey landlord-tenant law offers residential tenants a great deal of protection to ensure that people have a secure and safe place to live, provided that tenants comply with their duties and responsibilities. A landlord/tenant relationship typically begins with the signing of a lease. The lease is a contract –…
The purpose of New Jersey’s Unemployment Compensation Law is protecting people from the harsh effects of losing their jobs, and providing a safety cushion for this sudden loss of employment. Most employees are “at will” employees. This means that there are no contractual terms of employment or specific requirements for…
New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (the “LAD”) protects many people, particularly employees, from discrimination because of their race, ethnicity or religion, among other things. Discrimination can take many forms, but includes direct tangible adverse employment actions, such as firing, demotion, etc., and harassment which cause…
New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act (“CEPA”) is New Jersey’s whistleblower protection law. CEPA provides perhaps the broadest and strongest legal protections in the country against whistleblower retaliation. However, it does not protect against all employee complaints that an employer is doing something it shouldn’t. In the recent case of…
We live in a time of economic turmoil. New Jersey’s unemployment rate stands at nine percent, well above the national average. Many New Jersey employees find themselves losing what they thought were secure jobs. Loss of a job can lead to devastating consequences. However, both the Federal and New Jersey…
Businesses with any New Jersey employees are responsible for withholding and paying income taxes, Medicare taxes, and Social Security, and paying payroll taxes on wages paid to their employees. However, in general, the same businesses do not have to do so when hiring independent contractors. Therefore, it may be tempting…
Pregnancy Discrimination In 2011, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) received the largest number of complaints of pregnancy discrimination in its history. Pregnancy discrimination has been increasing since at least 1992. Pregnancy discrimination in New Jersey, New York and nationally continues to be a major problem. It is illegal to…
Both state and federal laws govern family leave in New Jersey. The Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and New Jersey Family Leave Act (FLA) have long provided 12 weeks of unpaid family leave for employees of employers with at least 50 employees. In 2008, New Jersey passed the…
The United States Supreme Court recently ruled that a fired employee can sue his employer for the harm he suffered from “cat’s paw discrimination” because of his membership in the Army Reserve. Federal and state courts have ruled that “cat’s paw” liability applies in a wide variety of other New…
The United States Supreme Court recently issued a decision on a contentious question in employment law , with important implications for New Jersey employment disputes – can an employee who did not engage in protected activity sue his employer for firing him to retaliate against a friend or family member…