The goal of state and federal anti-discrimination and harassment laws has always been to discourage these practices by making harassers and their employers liable to the victims for the harm they cause. A recent N.J. Supreme Court decision, however, has allowed a claim under the state’s Law Against Discrimination (LAD) in which there was no apparent victim.
The N.J. Supreme Court reversed the Appellate Division on this issue, finding that the anti-retaliation provisions of the LAD extended beyond “complaints about demonstrable acts of discrimination” and that the overall policy of the LAD was to promote a discrimination-free workplace. The court found, therefore, that an employee need only have a good faith belief that the conduct he or she complained of was discriminatory under the law in order to be protected from retaliation. This ruling substantially increases the scope of protections available under New Jersey employment retaliation law.