New Jersey

Your Whistleblower’s Old Retaliation Claims Aren’t Necessarily Dead. A NJ Court Just Showed How.

May 21, 2026 | by Eric B. Meyer

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A pharmaceutical company’s compliance officer claimed she spent years flagging what she believed were Anti-Kickback Statute violations. What followed, according to her complaint: bogus HR investigations, a forced apology, a retaliatory performance review, a final warning memo, interference with her medical leave while she was undergoing cancer treatment, and ultimately termination. The employer moved to dismiss on statute of limitations grounds. The New Jersey Appellate Division just reversed.

New Jersey’s Independent Contractor Rules Are Now Official — And the Burden Is All Yours

May 11, 2026 | by Eric B. Meyer

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Fail any one of the three prongs of New Jersey’s ABC test, and the worker is your employee. The Department of Labor adopted new independent contractor rules on May 5, making that standard official in binding regulation, and employers have until October 1 to get their contractor relationships in order.

Can a White Employee Sue for Race Discrimination Under the NJLAD Without Any Heightened Burden? The Third Circuit Says Yes.

March 31, 2026 | by Eric B. Meyer

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The Third Circuit just predicted that New Jersey’s “reverse discrimination” rule is incompatible with the NJLAD. Federal courts in New Jersey are no longer applying it.

Hiring Undocumented Workers and Skipping Wages Isn’t a Loophole.

March 25, 2026 | by Eric B. Meyer

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He worked as a building superintendent for three and a half years. His employer conceded he did the work. He was never paid wages after his first two weeks. The New Jersey Supreme Court just explained why that arrangement is going to cost the employer. Continue reading

Mechanical Bull Bartending and the Age Bias Lawsuit That Never Got Off the Ground

March 3, 2026 | by Eric B. Meyer

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The job requirements were… a lot: craft-beer exams, choreography, flair tricks, social media posts, and a “weight proportional to height” standard. Oh, and a mechanical bull. Eighteen longtime bartenders said the whole thing skewed younger. The court said their lawsuit had a more basic problem. Continue reading

You updated your arbitration agreement. You rolled it out electronically. You included an opt-out. That should be enough – right?

February 20, 2026 | by Eric B. Meyer

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Under basic contract law, yes. But thanks to the Ending Forced Arbitration Act, that may not be the end of the story. Continue reading

When a PIP becomes the retaliation claim

February 5, 2026 | by Eric B. Meyer

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Performance improvement plans are often treated as neutral management tools. This case shows how quickly a PIP can become the centerpiece of a retaliation claim once an employee raises equity concerns. Continue reading

The Low Bar for Whistleblower Claims in New Jersey

January 30, 2026 | by Eric B. Meyer

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Whistleblower cases do not begin with evidence and proof. They begin with allegations. If those allegations are plausible, employers get forced into discovery. Under CEPA, that bar is very low. Continue reading

Governor Murphy Just Expanded the NJ Family Leave Act – Here’s What Employers Need To Know

January 20, 2026 | by Eric B. Meyer

Governor Murphy just expanded the New Jersey Family Leave Act. It reads cleanly in the statute. It reads a little differently once you try to apply it to real people and real leave requests.

These amendments are not cosmetic. They expand coverage, accelerate employee eligibility, and formally connect NJFLA to New Jersey’s paid-leave system. For employers, this is a structural change in how leave has to be managed. Continue reading

New Jersey Doubles Down on Disparate Impact as Federal Enforcement Pulls Back

January 5, 2026 | by Eric B. Meyer

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At a moment when federal agencies are actively dismantling disparate impact enforcement as a policy matter, New Jersey just went in the opposite direction – loudly, deliberately, and in writing.

Last month, the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights finalized new rules that spell out how disparate impact claims work under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination in the employment context. These rules do not create new liability. What they do is remove any remaining ambiguity about how neutral workplace policies will be judged under state law. Continue reading