Paid Jury Duty Leave Proposed Once Again

Businesses across the country are finally beginning to reopen and individuals are returning to work. As part of the reopening process, companies are implementing new safety protocols. Unfortunately, even the best-laid plans are not always successful.

On January 19, 2017, the New Jersey Assembly Labor Committee advanced a bill (A-4410) that would require written contracts between “freelance workers” and their hiring entity (“client”). Those contracts would need to include (i) an itemization of all services to be provided by the freelance worker; (ii) a description of how the freelancer worker’s compensation will be calculated; and (iii) the date on which the client will pay the freelance worker or the mechanism by which that date will be calculated. The bill defines a freelance worker as any “sole proprietor who is not an employee and who is hired or retained as a freelance worker by a client to provide services in exchange for compensation in an amount equal to or greater than $600.”

Litigation often ends when one party files a motion for summary judgment, asking the court to determine that there is no issue of material fact for the jury, and asserting that a decision can be made in its favor based solely on the legal issues. In reviewing a motion for summary judgment, a court must view the record in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Recently, the 2d U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed summary judgment for an employer in an age discrimination case, holding that the lower court “failed to construe the evidence in the light most favorable to [the employee] and to draw all permissible inferences in [his] favor.”