The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination was the basis for an employment discrimination lawsuit filed by six former detectives who claimed that superiors required them to retire or simply released them because of their ages. The six plaintiffs won their age discrimination case last week when a jury returned a $2.7 million verdict in their favor.

The six men and women were working in the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office when, in 2008, they lost their jobs, which ranged from a sergeant to a crime scene investigator. The county and an erstwhile prosecutor were named as defendants in the suit. During trial, the plaintiff’s attorney exposed contradicting statements made by the former prosecutor. Deposition testimony he gave indicated that age played a role in his decision to let the six employees go. On the stand, however, he reversed course and claimed that age was not a factor.

The jury awarded each of the six former detectives compensation for future earnings and for the salary they would have received had they remained employed. The jury also granted punitive damages–a measure designed to punish a defendant for its conduct–in the amount of $175,000 per person. The judge must still lend his approval to the punitive damages award, however.

But the jury did not give the six their old detective positions. The former sergeant expressed regret that they would not be returning to work at the prosecutor’s office after the conclusion of the lawsuit. Despite this disappointment, the overall result shows the benefit of New Jersey’s laws that prevent employment discrimination on the basis of a worker’s age.

Source: The Record, “Jury awards Passaic County detectives $2.7M in age discrimination suit,” Matthew McGrath, July 10, 2012