New Jersey Supreme Court Upholds Employee’s Pilfering Confidential Employer Records in Discrimination Suit.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled 5-2 that an employee who engages in self-help and circumvents the pretrial discovery process by secretly copying her employer’s records for use in a discrimination lawsuit may be insulated from discipline and/or termination. The Court’s decision in Quinlan v. Curtiss-Wright Corp., No. A-51-09 (Dec. 2, 2010), adopting a totality-of-circumstances approach, gives employees who believe they were discriminated against more legal protections than ever while making it more difficult for employers to respond to employee misconduct.