New Law Punishes New Jersey Employers That Fail to Timely or Adequately Respond to Unemployment Agency Requests for Information

Traditionally, New Jersey employers have been free to challenge erroneous unemployment benefit charges even if the error was a result of the employer’s untimely or inaccurate response to the Department of Labor’s request for information about the employee in question. On August 19, 2013, Governor Chris Christie signed a bill (S2739) into law that prohibits relief from erroneous unemployment benefit charges if (1) the excess benefit payment was a result of the employer’s failure to timely (i.e., longer than 10 days) or adequately respond to a request, and (2) the employer or agent has a pattern of failing to respond in a timely or adequate manner to such requests (generally speaking, three or more failures in the previous year demonstrates a pattern).