{"id":3389,"date":"2018-04-27T16:18:57","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T20:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/?p=3389"},"modified":"2025-02-05T11:13:39","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T16:13:39","slug":"so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again.html","title":{"rendered":"So You Think Your Handbook Disclaimer Is Adequate? Think Again . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This past February the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court issued its unreported opinion in <em>Maselli v. Valley National Bancorp (the \u201cBank\u201d)<\/em>, a case that serves as a stark warning to employers of the exacting standards that must be met before a contractual disclaimer in an employee handbook (or other document) will be deemed adequate by the courts.<\/p>\n<p>By now, most employers are aware that employee handbooks or other policies describing the terms and conditions of employment may give rise to contractual obligations unless the employer includes a clear and prominent disclaimer of any contractual obligation. In its seminal decision in <em>Woolley v. Hoffman La Roche<\/em>, the New Jersey Supreme Court suggested that the disclaimer indicate that \u201cthere is no promise of any kind by the employer contained in the manual; [and] that regardless of what the manual says and provides, the employer promises nothing\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In <em>Maselli<\/em>, the plaintiff claimed she was transferred and ultimately terminated because the Bank failed to comply with that anti-harassment and bullying provisions of its Code of Conduct. The Bank moved to dismiss, pointing to the following disclaimer that was prominently displayed on the first page of its employee manual:<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again.html\"  title=\"Continue Reading So You Think Your Handbook Disclaimer Is Adequate? Think Again . . .\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This past February the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court issued its unreported opinion in Maselli v. Valley National Bancorp (the \u201cBank\u201d), a case that serves as a stark warning to employers of the exacting standards that must be met before a contractual disclaimer in an employee handbook (or other document) will be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,247],"tags":[],"coauthors":[139],"class_list":["post-3389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights","category-labor-employment-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>So You Think Your Handbook Disclaimer Is Adequate? Think Again . . . &#8212; April 27, 2018 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This past February the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court issued its unreported opinion in Maselli v. Valley National Bancorp (the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"So You Think Your Handbook Disclaimer Is Adequate? Think Again . . . &#8212; April 27, 2018 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This past February the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court issued its unreported opinion in Maselli v. Valley National Bancorp (the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-27T20:18:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-05T16:13:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"So You Think Your Handbook Disclaimer Is Adequate? Think Again . . . &#8212; April 27, 2018 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events","description":"This past February the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court issued its unreported opinion in Maselli v. Valley National Bancorp (the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"So You Think Your Handbook Disclaimer Is Adequate? Think Again . . . &#8212; April 27, 2018 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events","og_description":"This past February the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court issued its unreported opinion in Maselli v. Valley National Bancorp (the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again.html","og_site_name":"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events","article_published_time":"2018-04-27T20:18:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-05T16:13:39+00:00","author":"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C.","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C.","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again.html"},"author":{"name":"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C.","@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/#\/schema\/person\/429b3bd6b52a7aa6eb9a0709bbb4d06f"},"headline":"So You Think Your Handbook Disclaimer Is Adequate? Think Again . . .","datePublished":"2018-04-27T20:18:57+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-05T16:13:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again.html"},"wordCount":530,"articleSection":["Insights","Labor &amp; Employment"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again.html","url":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again.html","name":"So You Think Your Handbook Disclaimer Is Adequate? Think Again . . . &#8212; April 27, 2018 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-04-27T20:18:57+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-05T16:13:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/#\/schema\/person\/429b3bd6b52a7aa6eb9a0709bbb4d06f"},"description":"This past February the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court issued its unreported opinion in Maselli v. Valley National Bancorp (the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/so-you-think-your-handbook-disclaimer-is-adequate-think-again.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Insights","item":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"So You Think Your Handbook Disclaimer Is Adequate? Think Again . . ."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/","name":"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events","description":"Published by Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/#\/schema\/person\/429b3bd6b52a7aa6eb9a0709bbb4d06f","name":"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C.","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a19d0fac94b8d3d657028926f65c841917c5f8f0dd3f23ad394e83f16c690e09?s=96&d=mm&r=g3f2ca7450f0195db092bccff4fb8982e","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a19d0fac94b8d3d657028926f65c841917c5f8f0dd3f23ad394e83f16c690e09?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a19d0fac94b8d3d657028926f65c841917c5f8f0dd3f23ad394e83f16c690e09?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C."},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.lindabury.com"]}]}},"yoast":{"focuskw":"","title":"","metadesc":"","linkdex":"","metakeywords":"","meta-robots-noindex":"","meta-robots-nofollow":"","meta-robots-adv":"","canonical":"","redirect":"","opengraph-title":"","opengraph-description":"","opengraph-image":"","twitter-title":"","twitter-description":"","twitter-image":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3389"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3500,"href":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3389\/revisions\/3500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3389"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}