Right of Younger New Jersey Employees to Sue for Age Discrimination Affirmed

In February 1998, we distributed a White Paper entitled Age Discrimination Development Gives Rights to Younger Employees, in which we reported that the New Jersey Superior Court’s Appellate Division -- the State’s intermediate court of appeals -- had held that employees under age 40 could sue for age discrimination under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”). On February 24, 1999, the New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed that decision, and held that the LAD -- in stark contrast to the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act -- authorizes individuals under age 40 (but at least age 18) to sue for age discrimination. Accordingly, the defendant in that case, Bergen Commercial Bank, now faces the unusual prospect of a trial in which a jury will determine whether the bank discriminated against a 25-year-old employee because of his youth.

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