40A:10-34.1 Contract; coverage.

1. Any municipality or county, or agency thereof, hereinafter referred to as employers, may enter into contracts of group legal insurance with any insurer authorized, pursuant to P.L.1981, c.160 (C.17:46C-1 et seq.), to engage in the business of legal insurance in this State or may contract with a duly recognized prepaid legal services plan with respect to the benefits which they are authorized to provide. Such contract or contracts shall provide such coverage for the employees of such employer and may include their dependents. "Dependents" shall include an employee's spouse and the employee's unmarried children, including stepchildren and legally adopted children, and, at the option of the employer and the carrier, children placed by the Division of Youth and Family Services in the Department of Children and Families, under the age of 19 who live with the employee in a regular parent-child relationship, and may also include, at the option of the employer and the carrier, other unmarried children of the employee under the age of 23 who are dependent upon the employee for support and maintenance. A spouse or child enlisting or inducted into military service shall not be considered a dependent during such military service.

Elected officials may be considered, at the option of the employer, to be "employees" for the purposes hereof, but "employees" shall not otherwise include persons employed on a short-term, seasonal, intermittent or emergency basis, persons compensated on a fee basis, or persons whose compensation from the public employer is limited to reimbursement of necessary expenses actually incurred in the discharge of their duties.

The contract shall include provisions to prevent duplication of benefits and shall condition the eligibility of any employee for coverage upon satisfying a waiting period stated in the contract.

The coverage of any employee, and of his dependents, if any, shall cease upon the discontinuance of his employment or upon cessation of active full-time employment in the classes eligible for coverage, subject to such provision as may be made in any contract by his employer for limited continuance of coverage during disability, part-time employment, leave of absence other than leave for military service or layoff, or for continuance of coverage after retirement.

L.1983, c.191, s.1; amended 2004, c.130, s.113; 2006, c.47, s.185.