By the time most people go looking for an employment lawyer in Upper Saddle River, NJ, the company has had a head start. HR has built its file, counsel has drafted the release, and the deadline printed on the paperwork belongs to the employer. Closing that gap is the entire job.
Cowen & Jacobs has spent over three decades on the employee side of these fights, working from our employment law practice in Hackensack. Clients here tend to hold roles where one dispute reaches salary, bonus, equity, and reputation simultaneously, and they need to know in days rather than months what the law will actually back.
People hesitate because nothing feels provable yet. That instinct runs backwards:
Upper Saddle River sits on the New York line, so a neighbor commuting to Saddle River and one working remotely for a Rockland County company are not playing by the same rules. That line decides:
Few situations fit one label cleanly, so we read the whole arc of your employment before naming the claim.
New Jersey lets an employer end a job for almost any reason and stops them cold at an illegal one. Four laws carry the weight, each on its own clock:
The NJLAD and CEPA both make a losing employer pay your legal fees, which is why CEPA retaliation cases get real attention from companies that would otherwise wait you out.
Households here often run on one senior income, and the employer is frequently across the state line with little reason to worry about one departing employee. Cases like that settle at a table, so everything rides on how your file reads to a neutral who has seen hundreds.
Where the work physically happens usually controls, and remote arrangements have made that genuinely contested. Logging in from a desk here can put you under the NJLAD even if the company has never set foot in New Jersey. Split schedules need a closer look, since the answer moves both your deadline and your damages.
It relocates the fight, it does not cancel it. Your NJLAD and CEPA rights travel into arbitration intact, one-sided clauses get struck, and harassment and assault claims cannot be forced there at all under federal law passed in 2022.
Probably not. New Jersey applies the ABC test and the employer has to clear all three prongs, which most cannot. Workers found to be employees can reach back six years for overtime, and the penalty falls on the company, not on you.
Often, yes. Earned commissions count as wages in New Jersey, so a plan cannot simply forfeit them because you left before payday. What matters is when you completed the work that generated them, not when the company chose to issue the check.
Frequently. Fee-shifting under the NJLAD and CEPA is why claims that would never justify hourly billing still get filed and still get settled. If yours is not one of them, we will tell you that on the first call rather than three months in.
Are you ready to get started on your case with a consultation? With over 35 years of experience, our attorneys are ready to fight for you. Reach out to us today to see what Cowen & Jacobs can do for you.
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We assist employees throughout Bergen County, including Upper Saddle River and nearby communities such as Park Ridge, Montvale, Woodcliff Lake, Ramsey, Allendale, and Mahwah.
Barbara E. Cowen has practiced in New Jersey since 1981, starting as a clerk in the Law Division of Bergen County Superior Court, the division that still hears employment cases from Upper Saddle River. She holds a J.D. cum laude from Pace University School of Law and sits on a Bergen County Ethics Committee. Her family law work covers the terminations that reach support obligations or a divorce already underway.
Sara Jacobs leads the firm’s employment practice and has been admitted in New Jersey and the District of New Jersey since 1984. She spent fourteen years as an arbitrator at Bergen County Superior Court and co-chaired the county’s ADR Committee. An LL.M. from NYU and three years teaching at New York Law School give her command of both sides of the state line, where many Upper Saddle River claims begin.
We are here for you and ready to help you resolve your legal issue. For a consultation discussing your case, call Cowen & Jacobs today.
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