Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct based on sex that affects the terms or conditions of someone’s employment. The Law Offices of Usmaan Sleemi handles these claims under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, which reaches further than federal law in three ways worth knowing before you decide what to do: it covers employers of any size, it protects more people than just conventional employees, and it allows the individual who harassed you to be held personally liable alongside the company.
What is considered sexual harassment in the workplace?
It is unwelcome conduct based on sex that either conditions a job benefit on submission or is severe or pervasive enough to alter working conditions.
Those two branches have names. Quid pro quo harassment ties a job benefit or consequence to a sexual demand. Hostile work environment harassment involves conduct that makes the workplace abusive, judged by whether a reasonable person in the same position would find the conditions altered. The New Jersey standard comes from Lehmann v. Toys ‘R’ Us, 132 N.J. 587 (1993), which requires severe or pervasive conduct, not both.
The controlling word throughout is unwelcome. Conduct does not have to be refused out loud, reported immediately, or resisted physically to qualify.
Who is protected under New Jersey law?
More people than most employees assume, and at far smaller employers than federal law reaches.
The Law Against Discrimination applies to every employer in New Jersey regardless of headcount, while Title VII of the Civil Rights Act only reaches employers with 15 or more employees. A four-person business is fully covered by state law.
Coverage extends beyond permanent staff to job applicants, and New Jersey amended the LAD to extend protections to unpaid interns. Whether an independent contractor is protected depends on the actual working relationship rather than the label in a contract, and courts examine factors such as control over the work, who supplies the tools, and how integrated the person is into the business.
Can I sue the person who harassed me, not just the company?
Yes, and this is one of the most significant differences between New Jersey and federal law.
The LAD makes it unlawful to aid, abet, incite, compel, or coerce a discriminatory act under N.J.S.A. 10:5-12(e), and the New Jersey Supreme Court confirmed in Tarr v. Ciasulli, 181 N.J. 70 (2004), that individual supervisors can face personal liability on that theory. Title VII, by contrast, generally permits claims only against the employer.
The practical effect goes beyond adding a defendant. A supervisor facing personal exposure has interests that may diverge from the company’s, which changes the dynamics of a case considerably.
What was my employer required to do before any of this happened?
Maintain an anti-harassment policy that actually functions, not one that merely exists in a handbook.
New Jersey courts examine implementation. In Gaines v. Bellino, 173 N.J. 301 (2002), the New Jersey Supreme Court found a written policy insufficient without meaningful training, a complaint mechanism employees could realistically use, and evidence that management enforced it. Aguas v. State, 220 N.J. 494 (2014), gives employers a defense against vicarious liability for supervisor harassment, but only where they exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct the conduct.
If your employer never trained anyone, routed all complaints through a single person, or ignored earlier reports, those failures matter to your claim.
What is my employer required to do after I report?
Investigate promptly, take corrective action reasonably calculated to stop the conduct, and refrain from retaliating.
An adequate response usually means interviewing the people involved and any witnesses, reviewing relevant records, reaching a conclusion, and communicating an outcome. Employers frequently fall short in identifiable ways: assigning the investigation to the accused person’s close colleague or direct report, transferring the complaining employee instead of the harasser, or letting weeks pass with no action.
Retaliation for reporting is a separate violation with its own remedies, and it often becomes the stronger claim even when the underlying harassment is disputed.
What does the Law Offices of Usmaan Sleemi review first?
Whether the conduct was tied to sex, what the employer knew, and what it did once it knew.
Bring a dated timeline, messages and emails, your complaint and the employer’s response, the anti-harassment policy from your handbook, performance reviews predating the conduct, and the names of anyone who witnessed it. Keep all of it outside company systems, since access typically ends the day employment does.
Deadlines vary by forum: 300 days for an EEOC charge, 180 days for a complaint with the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, and two years for a lawsuit under the LAD. Damages under the state statute are uncapped, unlike Title VII, which limits compensatory and punitive damages between $50,000 and $300,000 based on employer size.
Sexual harassment is defined by whether conduct was unwelcome and sex-based, not by how the employer characterizes it or whether anyone intended harm. In New Jersey you may have claims against both the company and the individual, at an employer of any size. Bring your documentation to a confidential case review with the Law Offices of Usmaan Sleemi before the shortest applicable deadline runs.
