{"id":588,"date":"2026-08-03T16:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T20:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/insurancelaw\/?p=588"},"modified":"2026-08-03T16:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T20:12:12","slug":"nj-supreme-court-insurance-brokers-producers-and-agents-not-exempt-from-consumer-fraud-act-casts-doubt-on-learned-professional-exemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/insurancelaw\/2026\/08\/03\/nj-supreme-court-insurance-brokers-producers-and-agents-not-exempt-from-consumer-fraud-act-casts-doubt-on-learned-professional-exemption\/","title":{"rendered":"NJ Supreme Court: Insurance Brokers, Producers, and Agents Not Exempt from Consumer Fraud Act, Casts Doubt on “Learned Professional” Exemption"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brad D. Feldman<\/a>, Gregory D. Herrold<\/a> and James Hearon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a unanimous opinion, Lowe v. Audet<\/em>, __ N.J. ___ (2026) (slip op.), the New Jersey Supreme Court held that insurance brokers, producers, and agents are not exempt from the Consumer Fraud Act (CFA), N.J.S.A. 56:8-1, under the judicially created \u201clearned professional\u201d exemption, as semi-professionals or otherwise. The Court\u2019s opinion will have an immediate impact on the insurance industry in New Jersey, subjecting insurance brokers, agents, and producers to potential liability under the CFA, one of the nation\u2019s strongest consumer protection laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lowe\u2019s<\/em> reach, however, is not limited to the insurance industry. The opinion portends potential significant exposure for a broad range of other<\/em> industries currently reliant on the \u201clearned professional\u201d exemption, including the possibility of treble damages, attorneys\u2019 fees, and costs available under the CFA. The Court invited the Legislature to clarify whether certain professionals are exempt from CFA liability and, if so, to identify those professionals with specificity. But the Court signaled that, absent legislative clarity, it will \u201cawait a case that presents a direct challenge\u201d to the \u201clearned professional\u201d exemption. While declining to formally abolish the exemption, the Court expressed \u201cserious doubts\u201d about its textual and legislative foundations and left the exemption\u2019s continued viability an open question under New Jersey law. The opinion serves as a stark warning to regulated professionals and businesses operating in New Jersey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full article published in The New Jersey Law Journal <\/em>on the Duane Morris LLP website<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brad D. Feldman, Gregory D. Herrold and James Hearon In a unanimous opinion, Lowe v. Audet, __ N.J. ___ (2026) (slip op.), the New Jersey Supreme Court held that insurance brokers, producers, and agents are not exempt from the Consumer Fraud Act (CFA), N.J.S.A. 56:8-1, under the judicially created \u201clearned professional\u201d exemption, as semi-professionals or … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “NJ Supreme Court: Insurance Brokers, Producers, and Agents Not Exempt from Consumer Fraud Act, Casts Doubt on “Learned Professional” Exemption”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[501,12,6,500],"ppma_author":[417],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-learned-professional-exemption","tag-insurance","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-jersey-supreme-court"],"authors":[{"term_id":417,"user_id":6,"is_guest":0,"slug":"duanemorris3","display_name":"Duane Morris","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/insurancelaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2014\/10\/dmlogo.jpg","author_category":"1","last_name":"Davies","first_name":"Thomas","job_title":"","user_url":"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com","description":"Visit the Duane Morris website.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/insurancelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/insurancelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/insurancelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/insurancelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/insurancelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/insurancelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":590,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/insurancelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions\/590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/insurancelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/insurancelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/insurancelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/insurancelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}