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On September 21, 2012, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed into law a statute, N.J. State Assembly Bill No. A2647, N.J. State Senate Bill S1930, requiring New Jersey employers with 50 or more employees to post in the workplace and to provide notices of workers' rights "to be free of gender inequity or bias in pay, compensation, benefits, or other terms or conditions of employment" under the New…Read More

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 201-219 (the “FLSA”), and its implementing regulations, 29 C.F.R. §§ 510 et seq., mandate that most employees in the U.S. be paid overtime compensation at 1½ times the regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a workweek. However, the FLSA sets forth an exemption from overtime pay for employees “employed…Read More

In Manhattan, a worker who, “without good cause,” voluntarily leaves his employment is disqualified from receiving unemployment insurance benefits. N.Y. Labor Law § 593(1)(a). A worker who quits his job because his employer in Manhattan has moved to a location which is further away from the worker’s residence may or may not be found to have voluntarily left his employment…Read More

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, N.J.S.A. §§ 10:5-1 – 10:5-30 (the "NJLAD"), prohibits employers, because of the race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, civil union status, domestic partnership status, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, disability, nationality, military status, or atypical hereditary cellular or blood trait of any person, to refuse to hire or employ or to bar…Read More

In March 2012, in Gurung v. Malhotra, 10 Civ. 5086 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 16, 2012), the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Marrero, J.) awarded, to a 22-year-old domestic worker, damages of $1,458,335 against the maid’s former employers — an Indian diplomat and her husband. The diplomat and her husband, Neena and Jogesh Malhotra (“the Malhotras”), had brought…Read More

In several civil lawsuits (not bankruptcy proceedings) in which this author represented the creditor, the debtor -- usually without its attorney's involvement -- has tendered to the creditor a check, in the amount of only a portion of the debt owed, marked "payment in full," "paid in full," "full payment," or the like. In such a scenario, the creditor typically asks this author:…Read More

No. In Manhattan, NYC, a company may not deduct from an employee’s paycheck, charge against an employee’s wages, or require an employee to reimburse the company for, monetary losses to the company, even if the employee’s carelessness caused the losses. For example, if an employee loses or damages a laptop computer or other property belonging to the company, the company may…Read More

In February 2012, the New York Court of Appeals — New York State’s court of last resort — held that where individuals, with an intent to blackmail or extort from a wrongdoer, truthfully report, to governmental officials, wrongdoing that is of public interest, no absolute privilege shields those individuals from liability to the wrongdoer for prima facie tort and tortious interference with prospective contractual rights.…Read More

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states in part: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . .” The first of these two quoted clauses is known as the Establishment Clause. The second of these two quoted clauses is termed the Free Exercise Clause. In January 2012, in Hosanna-Tabor…Read More

In New Jersey, the rate of interest upon the loan or forbearance of any money, wares, merchandise, goods or chattels may not exceed 6% per year, or when there is a written contract specifying a rate of interest, 16% per year.  N.J.S.A. § 31:1-1. That is, in New Jersey, when the agreement is oral, charging interest of more than 6% per year is civil…Read More