Plaintiffs’ Case Law: Violations of Americans with Disabilities Act or Constructive Dismissal?

Decided legal cases offer guidance when it comes to an employer’s responsibility to accommodate a disabled employee’s reasonable request for help on the job. Many employers are not aware that it’s actually their duty to participate in the interactive process. An employer’s engagement with that request should begin as soon as an employee makes inquiry, or an employer sees or hears that an employee has a disability requiring workplace attention.

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Joint, Shared, and Sole Physical Custody in NJ: Keep the Focus on Children

In New Jersey, there are a number of routes divorcing parents may regarding child custody issues. Beyond the parents’ needs or desires, focus on the children’s best interests is of paramount importance to the courts and the public, and the parents should share that concern. This goal is also the focus of any court proceeding should the parents be unwilling or unable to hammer out a custody agreement through negotiation or mediation.

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Ready or Not, NJ Closed Adoptions Set to Open in 2017; and Open Adoptions Become the “New Norm”

In May of 2014, open adoption activists celebrated the Governor’s signing a bill into law that will allow them to get their original birth records, beginning in January of 2017.
Governor Christie’s sister was adopted in the 1970’s, and her husband also was adopted. The couple, the Governor said, could not get medical information under previous law. That will all change in 2017.

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Mandatory Workplace Testing and the Making of an ADA Violation

On January 26, 2016, the NJ Appellate Division published IN THE MATTER OF PAUL WILLIAMS, a precedent-setting case that struck a blow for workers’ rights to be free from mandatory and unnecessary medical and psychiatric “fitness for duty” testing. For many years, employers have gotten away with using written and unwritten “fitness for duty” policies to discriminate against public and private sector workers, including wrongful termination. This case is important, instructive, and deserves public attention.

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