New Jersey Employment Lawyer Blog

A suspended police captain in Ewing Township claims the police department is punishing for refusing to approve overtime for office who lectured at a university course taught the police chief. The lawsuit filed by a New Jersey employment lawyer on behalf of the captain contends that the Township violated the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA), commonly known as New Jersey's Whistleblower law. According to the lawsuit, the captain claims he was brought up on charges after refusing to approve overtime he felt was unjustified. The New Jersey employment lawyer representing the Township stated that they have no facts which support the claim.

If you are a NJ employment lawyer you should be reading this case. New Jersey's Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to tie wage-discrimination claims to a fixed point in time, holding instead that each paycheck that offends the Law Against Discrimination starts the two-year statute of limitations running anew. The ruling, in Alexander v. Seton Hall University, A-87-09, reinstates LAD claims by three female Seton Hall University professors who were paid less than their younger male colleagues. However, the Court declined to apply the "continuing violation" doctrine that would have allowed the professors to sue for lost wages dating back to when they were hired decades ago. They will be limited to recovering the wage differential only for the two years prior to filing their complaint in 2007. The Court refused to follow the U.S. Supreme Court's much-maligned ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. The plaintiffs were represented by a New Jersey employment lawyer.

Are restrictive covenants dead or alive? New Jersey employment lawyer analyzes recent case law in NJ and NY, including the viability of restrictive covenants in the workplace. Employees are urged to seek the advice of an employment lawyer before signing a restrictive covenant with an employer.

New Jersey employment lawyers confirm that the recent mass layoff by Charlie Brown's restaurants in New Jersey does not trigger the Federal Warn Act, nor does the layoff trigger New Jersey's Mini Warn Act, Employment lawyers for the employees believe there are gaps in the law that need to be filled. Both Acts state that the law is not triggered unless there are 50 or more full time employees at a facility. For now, the employees are out of luck. Perhaps the Legislature will listen to the New Jersey employment lawyers and amend the law.

Many people in New Jersey are of the false impression that only police and fire employees are permitted to retire under the age of 40. The Star Ledger of New Jersey just ran an article pointing out this is not true. Most public employees in the State of New Jersey can retire with a guaranteed pension after 25 years of service. Of course, any public employee in the State of New Jersey that is looking to retire early should always seek the advice of a New Jersey employment attorney.

A public employee may bring a whistleblower suit even if he fails to raise that claim in his administrative challenge to his termination, the Appellate Division ruled Wednesday. The court said further that the Conscientious Employee Protection Act suit filed by a New Jersey employment attorney on behalf of a a former Passaic County sheriff's officer was not barred by his failure to appeal the administrative determination or to file a Tort Claims Act notice. CEPA gives claimants the discretion to pursue their claims in court rather than through the administrative process, the appeals court said in Racanelli v. County of Passaic, A-5350-08. And CEPA claims against public entities are not subject to the notice provisions of the Tort Claims Act, the appeals court said.

What happens when an employee writes negative comments about her employer on Facebook. Well, in this case, the NLRB's is suing American Medical Response of Connecticut, Inc. The NLRB alleges the company wrongfully fired the employee for the postings. The NLRB also alleged that the company wrongfully denied her union representation in the midst of an investigatory interview. The most notable charge by the NLRB is that the company "maintained and enforced an overly broad blogging and Internet posting policy."

Social media issues are heating up in employment law, including cases in New Jersey. A recent post by www.newjerseylawyer.info noted a jury verdict in favor of a restaurant employee that was fired after posting negative comments about a supervisor on a MySpace page.

Employment lawyers defense costs, and payouts in settlements, is costing Atlantic City big bucks these days in employment litigation. A recent article by the Press of Atlantic City reported that one lawsuit the City chose to settle a case and payout $750,000. But that was only part of the payout. Law firms representing the City and individuals billed 1.2 Million. This exceeded the settlement cost by $450,000. Does this even make sense? It certainly does for the employment attorneys in NJ that were able to convince the City to keep on fighting.

Employment lawyers in New Jersey representing the New Jersey State troopers who challenged the constitutionality of a New Jersey policy that bans them from moonlighting as lawyers saw their appeal dismissed on Wednesday. The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district judge's dismissal of the suit for failure to state a claim, agreeing that the plaintiffs had not made out a case of violation of equal protection or procedural due process. Until May 20, 2007, the trooper lawyers could handle noncriminal matters such as wills and real estate closings with the attorney general's approval. The policy changed to restrict troopers to representing members of their immediate families for free in non-adversarial matters with the attorney general's prior approval.

Employment lawyers in NJ are going to cash in on this case. Retalier of office spplies, Staples Inc. has entered into a $42 million settlement in a class action. The case allaged that overtime was not paid to 5,500 assistant managers. The settlement agreement was approved by District Judge Katharine Sweeney Hayden. Judge Hayden sits in the United States District Court, in Newark, New Jersey. The settlement calls for back pay and statutory damages for managers that were classified as overtime-exempt even though the majority of their work hours were spent unloading trucks, stocking shelves and running cash registers. The lawsuit, In Re Staples Inc. , 2:08-cv-05746, alleges that Staples violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Fair Labor Standards Act is a federal law nthat applies to employers in the state of New Jersey.