DENVILLE, NJ—Andrew S. Berns, chair of the employment and commercial litigation practice at Einhorn, Barbarito, Frost & Botwinick, PC, and Matheu D. Nunn, chair of the firm’s appellate and family law practices, scored a precedential reversal as Amicus Curiae for their clients, Certified Court Reporters Association of New Jersey. The case is State Shorthand Reporting Services Inc. v. New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development and Jersey Shore Reporting LLC v. New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, case numbers A-1500-21 A-1710-21.
The issue in the case was whether N.J.S.A. 43:21-19(i)(10)—from the time of its enactment in 2010—provides an exemption for court reporters under the Unemployment Compensation Law (“UCL”), N.J.S.A. 43:21-1 to -71, or whether court reporters must still establish a Federal Unemployment Tax Act (“FUTA”) exemption pursuant to N.J.S.A. 43:21-19(i)(1)(G).
The Commissioner of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development concluded that court reporting agencies had to establish a FUTA exemption, and, in the absence of that exemption, court reporting agencies were “employers” subject to the UCL.
