It is hard to believe that it is that time of year again: 2024 has flown by even more quickly than prior years, it seems. The “Fearless Forecaster” predicts it will happen again in 2025, especially for us more “senior” attorneys.

Last year’s predictions by the Fearless Forecaster for the hottest topics in employment law were spot-on. For example, one prescient prediction was a rise in spoliation and fraudulent concealment claims due to litigants’ increased reliance on computers and their failure to preserve relevant communications and data on those devices. But this turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. In November 2024, Judge Jodi Lee Alper, P.J.Ch., in the Chancery Division, Essex County, awarded a medical group approximately $850,000 against a defendant doctor’s spoliation of evidence from his electronic devices. See Salerno Medical Associates v. Shukla, ESX-C-42-22.