How to File a Discrimination Complaint in New Jersey, Step by Step

Make sure the LAD covers your claim and you're still on time

The LAD bans workplace discrimination and harassment based on race (including traits historically associated with race, such as hair texture and protective hairstyles), creed, color, national origin, ancestry, nationality, age, sex, pregnancy or breastfeeding, gender identity or expression, affectional or sexual orientation, marital, civil union, or domestic partnership status, disability (including HIV/AIDS), genetic information (including refusing a genetic test), atypical hereditary cellular or blood traits, and liability for military service. It also bans retaliation. That includes punishing you for opposing discrimination, filing a complaint, testifying, or asking a lawyer for advice about your rights.

• The LAD covers employers of any size, including the State and local governments. There's no minimum number of employees.
• Harassment is illegal when it happens because of a protected trait and is severe or pervasive enough that a reasonable person in your position (for example, of your race or sex) would believe the conditions of employment were altered and the workplace became hostile or abusive. In rare cases one severe incident, such as a slur from a supervisor, can be enough, and you don't have to show you lost pay or your job.
• Deadlines: 180 days to file with the DCR, or 2 years to sue in Superior Court. For ongoing harassment, the clock generally runs from the last act in the pattern. A firing, demotion, or denied promotion each starts its own clock.
• Federal employees generally must use the federal EEO process instead and contact their agency's EEO counselor within 45 days. Ordinary unpaid wage and overtime claims are not LAD claims. They go to the NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development or to court. But being paid less because of your sex, race, or another protected trait is an LAD claim.

Gather your information

• Your employer's correct legal name and address (check a paystub or W-2)
• The name and job title of each person who harassed or discriminated against you, and each manager who allowed it
• The date of each incident, especially the last one
• What happened to you: firing, demotion, pay cut, harassment, denied accommodation, and so on
• Witness names, texts, emails, photos, pay records, and performance reviews
• Any arbitration agreement or handbook acknowledgment you signed or clicked through. It may move your case out of court.

Choose your path: the DCR or Superior Court

This is the most important decision in a New Jersey case. Filing a lawsuit bars a DCR complaint while the suit is pending. A DCR case, while it's pending, is the exclusive way to pursue that claim, and the DCR's final determination bars a later lawsuit over the same grievance.

DCR path: submit an intake form

To file with the DCR, first submit an intake form online through the NJ Bias Investigation Access System (NJBIAS) at bias.njcivilrights.gov, available in English and Spanish. You can also call 1-833-NJDCR4U (833-653-2748) and a DCR receptionist will help you fill it out. A DCR investigator will then call you for an intake interview to confirm the DCR can take your complaint, including whether the violation happened within the last 180 days.

Review the verified complaint before you sign it

If the DCR accepts your case, it prepares a verified complaint for your signature, and you become the "Complainant." The DCR writes it from your intake interview, so read every line before you sign. It has to name each business or person you are accusing and give the particulars of what happened.

• Name your employer and each individual who took part
• Include every protected trait and every harm that applies
• If you complained and were then punished, make sure it includes retaliation
• Check that the dates are right, especially the date of the last incident

Follow the DCR case and watch the 2-year clock

The DCR serves your complaint on your employer, which must file an Answer and a Position Statement that you can review. The DCR offers free dispute resolution at any point and investigates the complaint. At the end, the DCR issues a finding of probable cause (the DCR tries conciliation, and if that fails, the case is prosecuted before an administrative law judge or in court) or no probable cause (a final decision against you on the merits, and the case is closed).

• 180 days after filing, you can ask the DCR to send your case to the Office of Administrative Law for a hearing, unless the DCR has already found no probable cause or dismissed the complaint.
• A "no probable cause" finding can be appealed to the Appellate Division within 45 days of the date you are served with it.

Protect your federal claims with the EEOC

Federal laws such as Title VII, the ADA, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act have their own deadlines. In New Jersey, a charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission generally must be filed within 300 days of the discrimination (for harassment, 300 days from the last incident). The EEOC says a charge filed with a state fair-employment agency is automatically "dual-filed" with the EEOC when federal law applies. Ask the DCR investigator to confirm your complaint will be dual-filed. If you go straight to Superior Court, file a separate EEOC charge (EEOC Public Portal or 1-800-669-4000) if you want federal claims.

After the EEOC issues a Notice of Right to Sue, a federal lawsuit must be filed within 90 days. (Age claims work differently: you can sue 60 days after filing your EEOC charge without a notice, but if the EEOC closes your charge and notifies you first, you must sue within 90 days of receiving that notice.) Title VII generally covers employers with 15 or more employees, so smaller employers may be reachable only under the LAD.

Court path: file in the Superior Court, Law Division

File in the county where the discrimination happened or where any party lives. A corporation is treated as living in the county of its registered office and in any county where it actually does business. If you are suing a government employer, file in the county where the discrimination happened.

• File a complaint with a Case Information Statement (CIS). Without the CIS or the filing fee, the clerk will return your complaint unfiled. Self-represented filers can generally file electronically through JEDS (the Judiciary Electronic Document Submission system), by mail, or in person.
• The filing fee for a Law Division complaint is $250. If you can't afford it, submit the court's fee-waiver certification with your financial records and a proposed order.
• To get a jury, serve a written jury demand. You can put it at the end of your complaint, and it must be served no later than 10 days after service of the last pleading on that issue (usually the defendant's answer). If you miss it, you waive a jury trial.
• Serve the summons, complaint, and CIS on every defendant right away, through the county sheriff or a private process server.
• LAD law requires you to mail a copy of your complaint to the Division on Civil Rights at the same time you file it with the court, and later any amended pleadings, briefs, and legal memoranda.