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For Information that contains an update on the NJ DOL Audit Issue and why it matters:
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READY TO DONATE NOW Suggested Donation amounts are: March 11, 2022 We would like to update you regarding the years-long litigation with the NJ Department of Workforce and Labor (DOL) and where it stands now. We also need your help to get across the finish line. RECAP: As most of you know, in earlier decisions and again in 2010, the NJ Legislature categorized court reporters as independent contractors. That was, and still is, the "law of the land." The DOL has ignored that law, continuing to audit both agencies and reporters in an attempt to prove the employer/employee relationship. Over many years, two court reporting agencies (State Shorthand and Jersey Shore) have challenged the DOL in the Office of Administrative Law (OAL). Their cases have been tried before two OAL Judges, both of whom found in favor of the agencies/reporters that they do not have an employer/employee relationship. However, in a system overshadowed with thick irony, the final arbiter of those decisions is the Commissioner of the DOL, Robert Asaro-Angelo. How the head of the defendant agency in a lawsuit can overrule the judge's decision is a discussion for another day, but that is exactly what he did. There is good news and bad news. The bad first. Governor Murphy has formed a task force to "identify the non-compliers and make them pay back taxes, or put them out of business." Words like "criminal consequences" have come out of Trenton. With the Commissioner's decision to overturn the judges' decisions in favor of court reporters, the auditing process - which had been primarily under a stay until the completion of the litigation in the OAL - have begun again. The good news is that ALL of this was expected, and the main goal of both agencies along with CCRA-NJ as amicus participator was to get out of the OAL and into the Superior Court Appellate Division, where there are no judges beholden or employed by the OAL, and where only the law as written by the NJ Legislature granting court reporters independent contractor status, will be considered. Bothe the legal teams and the attorneys familiar with the case feel the Appellate Court will rule with the law as written by the NJ Legislature. Over the past two weeks, both State Shorthand and Jersey Shore Reporting have filed their respective cases in the Appellate Division, and CCRA-NJ intends to join in that fight with our attorney, Andrew Berns of Einhorn Barbarito. The estimated cost of participation is approximately $30,000 to $35,000. We need the help of all agencies and all reporters, as we are in the final stretch here and are finally out from under the thumb of decisions being made by the interested party (DOL) and in a court of law, that will consider the facts and the law. CCRA-NJ is asking every agency owner and every individual Certified Court Reporter to donate to the expenditure needed to fight this issue and bring it to a close once and for all. We know many of you have donated in the past, and we are grateful for that: however, This is not the time to drop the ball when we are fighting for the future of court reporting and there is light at the end of the tunnel. All donations are anonymous for anyone with concerns in that area: and all donations are used exclusively for this legal issue. Jennifer Billstein-Miller, RMR, CCR-NJ, CRR *** Send your checks made payable to CCRA-NJ with "Audit Action Fund" in the notes field to CCRA-NJ at PO Box 460, Collingswood, NJ 08108, or sign up online by CLICKING HERE.
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