Migliaccio & Rathod LLP is currently investigating employers who may be violating the Massachusetts Lie Detector Statute, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149, § 19B(2)(b), by omitting legally required disclosures from their job applications.

Massachusetts’ Lie Detector Law

Massachusetts law strictly prohibits employers from requiring or even suggesting that a job applicant take a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. The law also requires every job application used in Massachusetts to include a specific notice informing applicants of this right. Failure to include this notice is a clear statutory violation—regardless of whether a lie detector test was actually administered.

A Pattern of Unlawful Applications?

Recent allegations against Macy’s, Inc., brought by a job applicant in Forbes v. Macy’s, Inc., highlight the potential scale of this issue. The plaintiff alleges that Macy’s omitted the required lie detector notice on over 10,000 job applications submitted for Massachusetts-based positions in the past three years. The statute entitles each affected applicant to a minimum of $500 in statutory damages, in addition to attorneys’ fees.

The Forbes case is now a proposed class action, with claims centralized in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The outcome could affect thousands of job seekers and serves as a warning to any employer using noncompliant application forms.

Are You a Job Applicant in Massachusetts?

If you applied for a Massachusetts-based position and believe the job application did not contain a notice about lie detector tests, you may have a claim for statutory damages of at least $500 per application submitted. Importantly, this law applies regardless of whether you were hired, rejected, or even considered further in the application process.

Have You Submitted a Noncompliant Job Application?

We are interested in hearing from job applicants who:

Applied for a Massachusetts job in the past three years;
Did not see a disclosure on the application about the illegality of lie detector tests;
Submitted their application to a company that used the same application form for multiple positions.

If you believe you may be affected, we encourage you to contact us. Please complete the questionnaire below, email us at [email protected], or call us at (202) 470-3520.