Paula Lopez, May 5, 2017. In a challenge by a New Jersey law firm and the National Employment Lawyers Association to N.J.A.C. 12:17-2.1, a 2015 regulation passed by the Department of Labor and Workforce defining employee conduct that renders him or her ineligible to receive unemployment benefits following termination, the New Jersey Appellate Division ruled that the Department’s attempt to define “simple misconduct,” and distinguish it from behavior amounting to “severe misconduct” and “gross misconduct,” is arbitrary and capricious and therefore invalid. A worker in New Jersey fired…