New Jersey Employment Attorneys Blog

The USA Patriot Act (USAPA) has now been with us for nearly a decade. There are those who insist that it has been a necessary and useful tool against terrorist activities on US soil, and there are those who think it is a dangerous extension of government power over individuals’ lives. In this article, we will explore what may be dangerous or subject to abuse, about the USAPA.

1. Expanded Access to Personal Information Held by Others. A significant provision in the USAPA gives authorities the ability to force anyone –doctors, financial institutions, libraries, schools, internet providers, etc ., to reveal personal information that they have gathered about your activities. In doing so, it does not even have to be proven that there is any criminal activity connected to these records, and there is no effective judicial oversight for these actions.
2. Gag Rules Applying to the Above Actions. Having forced an institution or business to give up your personal information, authorities are allowed to forbid said institution or business from telling you of that activity.

By Monica Bay | Law Technology News

E-discovery vendors will be happy to hear the metrics released Thursday by The Cowen Group, a New York-based headhunter and research consultancy, which show a strong spurt of growth in electronic data discovery workload at law firms. Writes managing partner David Cowen, in the executive summary: “2012 has been a year of progress and promise for e-discovery professionals.” The survey, of 88 law firm and corporate law department professionals, found that 70 percent of law firms reported an increase in workload for their litigation support and e-discovery departments. That figure, says Cowen, is a sharp rise from the 2Q 2009 report, where only 42 percent of firms reported increases. Corporate law departments followed suit, with 77 percent of respondents also reporting workload spikes.

Bolstering the prediction, 55 percent of corporate and 62 percent of firm respondents said they “anticipate outsourcing a significant amount of e-discovery to third-party providers (with some organizations expected to do both).” The firms expect to grow capacity either by adding head count or purchasing new (or updating) technology, he notes.

The Law Offices of Stephan T. Mashel – NJ Employment Lawyers. They proudly represents New Jersey’s executive and professional workforce in all areas of employment law. They have prevailed in cases that have altered the landscape of discrimination and employment law in New Jersey. Experience and knowledge count when it comes to including discrimination on the basis of age, gender, pregnancy, race, religion, or disability, sexual harassment, whistleblower retaliation, severance package negotiations, executive compensation, breach of contract, non-compete agreements, wage and hour claims, and unemployment insurance appeals. They provide experienced, aggressive courtroom representation in all federal and state courts in the State of New Jersey. They have helped thousands of clients win justice, vindicate their rights, and obtain the financial recovery they deserve.

At the Law Office of Stephan T. Mashel, our NJ employment lawyers are passionate about protecting workers and enforcing employee rights throughout New Jersey. We fight to stop unlawful treatment on the job and aggressively pursue claims against employers in order to recover the damages and losses our clients have suffered.

The law firm of Stephan T. Mashel, located in Marlboro, New Jersey, is dedicated exclusively to protecting the rights of employees. Unlike other firms that practice law in a variety of areas, we practice in only one area – employment rights.

A New Jersey nurse was fired from her position at a long-term senior care facility for whistleblower activity. Nurse Jane objected to and refused to adhere to her employer’s practice of requiring nurses in her position to record any physician’s orders from the physician’s log book into the corresponding patient’s log book in case another nurse had failed to record a matching entry into the corresponding patient’s log book. Jane objected to this practice because if the initial nurse who made the recording into the physician’s log book (but failed to record in the patient’s log book) had made an inaccurate recording in the physician’s log book, then Nurse Jane could be recording the wrong medication or treatment prescribed into the patient’s log book. If such a mistake were made, it would be she whom the blame would be imputed to, and not the nurse who originally made the mistake. Such a mistake could result in the whistleblower nurse having her nurse’s license revoked by the NJ Board of Nursing.

Fearing losing her license, Jane contacted the Board of Nursing to determine whether or not she is required to abide by such a policy. The Board said she could follow the practice of filling in another nurse’s missing entries, but only so long as she was willing to put her nurse’s license on the line. Refusing to take such a risk, she continued to refuse to record other nurses’ missing entries and was resultantly fired from her job. Upon dismissal, Jane filed suit against her former employer under the New Jersey Conscientious Protection Act (CEPA).

CEPA was enacted to protect employees from retaliation after they disclose (“blow the whistle”) or object to their employer’s participation in unlawful or harmful activity. Retaliation can be discharge, suspension, demotion or other adverse employment action taken against an employee in the terms and conditions of employment. Under CEPA, an employee is protected from such retaliation if the employee either discloses or objects to an activity of the employer which the employee reasonably believes is in violation of law, regulation, rule or incompatible with a clear mandate of public policy.