New Jersey Employment Lawyers Blog
The New Jersey Supreme Court has affirmed that the framework for evaluating attorneys’ fee awards made pursuant to state statutory fee-shifting provisions such as the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination that was first adopted in the case Rendine v. Pantzer, 141 N.J. 292 1995. The Court held that the Rendine decision permitting attorney fee enhancements remains valid and has not been altered by the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Perdue v. Kenny, 130 S. Ct. 1662 (2010). In Perdue, the United States Supreme Court confirmed that contingency fee enhancements are not permitted in federal fee-shifting cases. As a result of the Perdue decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court granted certification in the cases Walker v. Guiffre (A-72-10) (a consumer fraud case) and Humphries v. Powder Mill Shopping Plaza (A-100-10) and consolidated their decision of these cases into one opinion.
In Humphries, the plaintiff alleged that the defendant shopping center, Powder Mill Shopping Plaza, violated the accessibility requirements in the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12181-12189 and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD)[LINK]. The plaintiff, Ms. Humphries, is handicapped as a result of suffering from a spinal cord injury in 1973. Ms. Humphries handicap requires her to use a motorized wheelchair and specialized van. In the Spring of 2005, Ms. Humphries was unable use her wheelchair in order to get into a restaurant at the Powder Mill Shopping Plaza because the ramp up to the sidewalk was too steep. Ms. Humphries was only able to gain access to the restaurant after her brother set up a portable ramp for her. Once inside the restaurant, Ms. Humphries complained to the owner regarding the unsafe ramp.
Thereafter, Ms. Humphries reached out to a New Jersey Discrimination Attorney named Ed Kopelson, who then wrote letters to the defendants regarding their non-compliance to ADA and New Jersey Law Against Discrimination applicable codes for accessibility for handicaps. After not being able to resolve the dispute, Ms. Humphries filed a lawsuit. Prior to trial, the parties stipulated that the defendants did not comply with applicable accessibility requirements of the ADA and New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, that defendants would pay Mr. Humphries $2,500 and that the amount of Plaintiff’s attorney fees’ would be decided by the trial court.