Speaker, NJICLE Summer CLEfest, "Workplace Investigations," Atlantic City, NJ

When the New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed an employer’s right to raise an affirmative Ellerth-Farragher defense (in the case of Aguas v. State of New Jersey), it gave a de facto mandate to all New Jersey employers to:

• Have clearly drafted employment policies in place;
• Conduct frequent training sessions for your employees about them;
• Define what will happen when a violation is alleged; and
• How investigations will be conducted, coordinated, documented, and assessed.

Do all of the above, and you will have an affirmative defense in an employment action. Be sloppy and lackadaisical about policies, training and investigations procedures, and you will be sitting on a Pandora’s box, waiting to be opened in litigation.

The time for employers and their attorneys to think about workplace investigations is long before a complaint is filed. Procedures should be articulated clearly in written company policies and followed succinctly. Our experienced panel of both management and plaintiff’s attorneys will examine the pitfalls and problems often present in workplace investigations and they will offer suggestions on how to develop policies and procedures, conduct investigations and how to challenge them – all with an eye cast towards subsequent litigation. This panel will discuss how to select investigators, evaluate findings, recommendations, and implement resolutions with finality and uniformity.