When employment is promised orally for months and then the offer is rescinded, can the employer be liable for damages even though a contract was never signed?

Some attorneys contend the state Supreme Court's ruling earlier this year in Goldfarb v. Soliminein which the plaintiff claimed promissory estoppel after the defendant backed out of a verbal contract to hire him as a financial adviser to handle his family's extensive investment portfolio, sends a clear message.

"Basically, when employers make promises, they should keep them. And if they don't, there are consequences," said plaintiffs attorney Jon Green of Green Savitz in Florham Park, who represented amicus curiae National Employment Lawyers Association of New Jersey in the case. NELA supported plaintiff Jed Goldfarb's position that a promissory estoppel claim is not barred under New Jersey's Uniform Securities Law of 1997.