Update (4/7/2017): The 7th Circuit issues an 8-3 en banc decision reversing the district court ruling dismissing the case. ……. I’ve written previously about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) attempts to expand existing...
In March, I reported that the EEOC brought its first sexual orientation discrimination cases under Title VII’s prohibition on workplace discrimination based upon sex of the employee. A press release from the EEOC states that one of the case, the one in...
In December, I wrote about a case where a person was fired presumably because he was getting divorced and having an affair with a co-worker. The plaintiff sued under the NJ Law Against Discrimination (LAD), his case was dismissed by the trial court and reverse on...
Today, the New Jersey Supreme Court Issued a decision in Rodriguez v. Raymours Furniture Company, Inc. This is a case of first impression and answers the question whether an employer can contractually limit the filing period for a claim under NJ’s Law Against...
A number of arbitration-related cases have been decided so far this month in the NJ Court system and there is a theme to all of them: whether an arbitration clause in a contract can compel arbitration. Arbitration is where an arbitrator acts as a private judge for...
Traditionally, the “American Rule” has prevailed in New Jersey, meaning each side pays their own legal fees in a lawsuit. (This is contrasted with the “British Rule” where the loser of the litigation pays all fees.) There are public policy...
I mediate many NJ Consumer Fraud Act cases. The state passed the original law in 1960 “‘to combat the increasingly widespread practice of defrauding the consumer” and added a private cause of action in 1971. (A private cause of action means that an...
The U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission is charged with enforcing a number of our federal workplace anti-discrimination laws. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act sets up a number of “protected classes” (i.e. race, color, religion, sex or...
Getting people to agree is part of a mediator’s job. Perhaps getting people to agree is the core of a mediator’s job. Obviously, agreement is not an easy thing to attain. If it was, I would be out of a job as people would be able to resolve disputes on...
An article today in the New Jersey Law Journal discusses the career path of retiring judges who go into mediation. The NJ Constitution requires judges to retire when they hit the age of 70. Judges call this constitutional senility. Because of their role as judges...
