Is there a perception of gender bias in the New Jersey courts? According to a recent survey, the answer is yes if a female lawyer responds to the survey. The Supreme Court Committee on Women in the Courts' recently issued a report. The report is based on a 2007 survey. The survey drew responses from 851 lawyers in the State of New Jersey. The report found a majority of female and minority attorneys believe that lawyers of their own sex or gender had been treated unfairly. However, this feeling was not shared by most of the lawyers surveyed.
New Jersey has some of the toughest discrimination laws in the country. In fact, our State Supreme Court has referred to discrimination as the equivalent of cancer - pretty compelling. I suspect the Supreme Court will take this study seriously. New Jersey has some great lawyers and it would be a shame to see this perception continue. Every lawyer is entitled to the same treatment regardless of gender, race, religion, disability and all of the other protected classifications under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.
