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Employment
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May 06, 2024
Ikea Sanctioned For Deleting Emails In Age Bias Suit
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Monday sanctioned Ikea for deleting four email accounts it had a duty to preserve in a proposed collective action alleging the furniture retailer discriminated based on age, saying Ikea was grossly negligent, the plaintiffs were prejudiced and the retailers' subsequent "strategy of delay and obfuscation" was "offensive."
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May 06, 2024
Judge Weighs Discovery Need On McD's No-Poach Standard
No-poach antitrust litigation against McDonald's is getting back underway in Illinois federal court following the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal of the fast food giant's appeal, spurring the district court judge to consider whether more discovery might be needed to determine the appropriate standard that will govern the case.
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May 06, 2024
Ex-JetBlue Attendant Can't Have Neurological Exam Recorded
A New York federal judge said Monday that a former flight attendant for JetBlue Airways Corp. who said she suffered brain injuries from being exposed to toxic fumes can't have a neurological examination recorded, saying she hadn't established special conditions that would warrant it.
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May 06, 2024
Pet Food Co. Hill's Sues Exec In Del. To Block Freshpet Job
Hill's Pet Nutrition Inc. asked Delaware's Court of Chancery on Monday to bar its former U.S president from taking a position with smaller industry competitor Freshpet Inc., saying the hiring was imminent and urging fast-track proceedings to block the move.
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May 06, 2024
Bridgewater Fights To Keep Bias Claims Under Wraps
Connecticut asset management firm Bridgewater Associates LP fought Friday to keep dispute with two terminated employees over alleged discrimination in arbitration, saying the Federal Arbitration Act bans its ex-workers from using state court procedures contrary to private dispute resolution agreements, and from airing grievances in public.
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May 06, 2024
Employer's Good Faith Axes Paystub Fine, Calif. Justices Rule
The California Supreme Court on Monday held that if an employer had a good faith belief it was providing complete and accurate wage statements to its employees, it has not knowingly and intentionally violated state labor law, meaning workers cannot recover civil penalties offered for intentional violations of wage statement requirements.
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May 06, 2024
5th Circ. Revives Airline Workers' Hearing-Loss Suit
A pair of flight attendants seeking to hold Boeing liable over hearing loss they suffered due to an aircraft's allegedly faulty smoke alarm have successfully convinced a Fifth Circuit panel to allow them to refile their case, bringing their claims back from the brink almost three years after the appeals court tossed them.
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May 06, 2024
7th Circ. Backs Ford In Black Ex-Plumber's Bias Suit
The Seventh Circuit on Monday upheld Ford Motor Co.'s defeat of a former plumber's lawsuit alleging she was punished for reporting she'd been treated harshly by her supervisor because she's a Black Muslim woman, finding nothing wrong with a lower court tossing the case.
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May 06, 2024
9th Circ. Hints Walmart Can't Avoid Jury In Disability Bias Suit
A Ninth Circuit panel indicated Monday that it doubted Walmart Inc. was being honest when it told a vision-impaired employee seeking to come back from a leave of absence that no jobs were available, with one judge suggesting a jury should decide if the retail giant lied to the worker.
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May 06, 2024
Home Builder Beats NC Trade Secrets Suit
The North Carolina's business court scrapped an interior designer's claims that a competitor stole cabinetry designs and customer information when it hired a former employee, sparing only an accusation that the ex-worker embezzled money.
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May 06, 2024
Workday Defeats In-House Atty's Bias Suit, For Now
A California magistrate judge on Monday dismissed, for now, a lawsuit by a Workday Inc. in-house attorney who accused the company of discriminatory and retaliatory behavior, which included pay inequities and calling the police to conduct an unnecessary wellness check at his house when he was hospitalized.
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May 06, 2024
Chicago To Pay $6M To End Water Workers' Race Bias Suits
The city of Chicago will pay nearly $6 million to end several lawsuits accusing its water management department of allowing racism to go unchecked and subjecting Black employees to harsher discipline than white workers, counsel for the workers said Monday.
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May 06, 2024
Judge Questions Reason For Removing Chem Co. Wage Class
A Pennsylvania federal judge joined chemical company workers Monday in questioning whether the company had plausibly alleged that there were enough people in a proposed class to remove their wage suit from state court.
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May 06, 2024
NJ Justices Erase Gov't Workplace Probe Confidentiality Rule
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Monday struck down part of a state statute that directs investigators to request, but not require, confidentiality in discrimination or harassment investigations involving state workers, ruling the provision still reached too far and chilled protected speech.
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May 06, 2024
Mass. Justices Wary Of Spiking Uber, Lyft Ballot Questions
Justices on Massachusetts' highest court appeared unlikely Monday to strike down ballot proposals to reinvent app-based drivers' relationships with Uber, Lyft and the like, commenting that the scattershot ideas for voters in March all carry the underlying theme of creating a carveout from the state's worker-friendly employee classification law.
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May 06, 2024
Ex-Worker Sues Fla. Krispy Kreme Over Transgender Status
A former employee at a corporate-owned Krispy Kreme restaurant in Miami has sued the company in Florida state court on allegations of sex and gender discrimination, saying that a manager fired her after learning about her transgender status.
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May 06, 2024
Chamber's Noncompete Challenge On Hold For Earlier Case
A Texas federal court has paused the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's case challenging the Federal Trade Commission's pending ban on noncompetes and encouraged the group to join a case filed a day earlier by tax services and software company Ryan LLC.
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May 06, 2024
Colo. High Court Sanctions Ex-Judge Who Harassed Staff
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday formally censured a former state judge who sought out relationships with court staff and tried to get another judge to expedite his father's probate case, finding the judge "repeatedly abused his power for self-gain," and ordered him to pay $51,000 in sanctions.
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May 06, 2024
Blaze Media Must Show Docs In Harassment Suit, Judge Says
A Texas federal judge ordered Blaze Media to cough up documents relating to a former commentator accused of sexual harassment, finding that the conservative media company didn't do enough to show that the discovery requests were overly broad and concerned confidential information.
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May 06, 2024
Margolis Edelstein Wants Redo Of Malpractice Ruling In Del.
Margolis Edelstein wants the Delaware Supreme Court to reconsider its decision reviving an insurer's malpractice suit claiming its incompetence caused the insurer to have to settle a case for $1.2 million, and is asking the full court to rehear the matter.
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May 06, 2024
Ritz-Carlton Defeats Post-Hurricane Layoff Claims At 1st Circ.
The First Circuit has said a Puerto Rico federal judge was right to rule in favor of a Ritz-Carlton hotel in a suit by a proposed class of employees who claimed they were wrongfully laid off after the island was decimated by back-to-back hurricanes in 2017.
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May 06, 2024
3rd Circ. Won't Revive Ex-Pa. Agency Atty's Firing Suit
The Third Circuit on Monday declined to revive a former Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development attorney's suit alleging his firing violated his 14th Amendment rights, reasoning that the lawyer failed to show how his termination constitutes a deprivation of property.
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May 06, 2024
Prof's Free Speech Suit Over Native Land Statement Falls Flat
A federal judge has tossed a professor's suit alleging the University of Washington violated his First Amendment rights after he opposed including an acknowledgment of Native Americans in his syllabus for a computer science course, saying his stance created a burden for the school.
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May 06, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
A record $100 million settlement, a fishy Facebook decision, a canceled Amazon delivery and an upended $7.3 billion sale dispute topped the news out of Delaware's Court of Chancery last week. There were also new cases involving Hess, Microsoft and the 2022 World Cup.
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May 06, 2024
Amazon Workers Answer Judge's $5.5M COVID Deal Inquiries
Amazon employees assured a California federal court that their $5.5 million proposed class action deal is fit for approval, giving additional information on the terms and saying the company backed ending the lawsuit accusing the e-commerce giant of failing to pay for time spent undergoing COVID screenings before shifts.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Serving As A Sheriff's Deputy Made Me A Better Lawyer
Skills developed during my work as a reserve deputy — where there was a need to always be prepared, decisive and articulate — transferred to my practice as an intellectual property litigator, and my experience taught me that clients often appreciate and relate to the desire to participate in extracurricular activities, says Michael Friedland at Friedland Cianfrani.
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Fears About The End Of Chevron Deference Are Overblown
While some are concerned about repercussions if the U.S. Supreme Court brings an end to Chevron deference in the Loper and Relentless cases this term, agencies and attorneys would survive just fine under the doctrines that have already begun to replace it, say Daniel Wolff and Henry Leung at Crowell & Moring.
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What A Post-Chevron Landscape Could Mean For Labor Law
With the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Chevron deference expected by the end of June, it’s not too soon to consider how National Labor Relations Act interpretations could be affected if federal courts no longer defer to administrative agencies’ statutory interpretation and regulatory actions, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Former Minn. Chief Justice Instructs On Writing Better Briefs
Former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, now at Greenberg Traurig, offers strategies on writing more effective appellate briefs from her time on the bench.
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Preparing For Possible Calif. Criminal Antitrust Enforcement
Though a recent announcement that the California Attorney General's Office will resume criminal prosecutions in support of its antitrust enforcement may be mere saber-rattling, companies and their counsel should nevertheless be prepared for interactions with the California AG's Antitrust Section that are not limited to civil liability issues, say Dylan Ballard and Lillian Sun at V&E.
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Studying NY, NJ Case Law On Employee Social Media Rights
While a New Jersey state appeals court has twice determined that an employee's termination by a private employer for social media posts is not prohibited, New York has yet to take a stand on the issue — so employers' decisions on such matters still need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis, say Julie Levinson Werner and Jessica Kriegsfeld at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Stay Interviews Are Key To Retaining Legal Talent
Even as the economy shifts and layoffs continue, law firms still want to retain their top attorneys, and so-called stay interviews — informal conversations with employees to identify potential issues before they lead to turnover — can be a crucial tool for improving retention and morale, say Tina Cohen Nicol and Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey.
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AI In Accounting Raises OT Exemption Questions
A recent surge in the use of artificial intelligence in accounting work calls into question whether professionals in the industry can argue they are no longer overtime exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act, highlighting how technology could test the limits of the law for a variety of professions, say Bradford Kelley at Littler and Stephen Malone at Peloton Interactive.
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Calif. High Court Ruling Has Lessons For Waiving Jury Trials
The California Supreme Court’s recent decision in TriCoast Builders v. Fonnegra, denying relief to a contractor that had waived its right to a jury trial, shows that litigants should always post jury fees as soon as possible, and seek writ review if the court denies relief from a waiver, say Steven Fleischman and Nicolas Sonnenburg at Horvitz & Levy.
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A Look At 3 Noncompete Bans Under Consideration In NYC
A trio of noncompete bills currently pending in the New York City Council would have various effects on employers' abilities to enter into such agreements with their employees, reflecting growing anti-noncompete sentiment across the U.S., say Tracey Diamond and Grace Goodheart at Troutman Pepper.
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Series
Spray Painting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My experiences as an abstract spray paint artist have made me a better litigator, demonstrating — in more ways than one — how fluidity and flexibility are necessary parts of a successful legal practice, says Erick Sandlin at Bracewell.
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Draft Pay Equity Rule May Pose Contractor Compliance Snags
The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council's recently proposed rule that would prohibit government contractors from requesting certain job applicants' salary history seems simple on the surface, but achieving compliance will be a nuanced affair for many contractors who must also adhere to state and local pay transparency laws, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.
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2nd Circ. Baby Food Ruling Disregards FDA's Expertise
The Second Circuit's recent decision in White v. Beech-Nut Nutrition, refusing to defer litigation over heavy metals in baby food until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration weighs in on the issue, provides no indication that courts will resolve the issue with greater efficiency than the FDA, say attorneys at Phillips Lytle.
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Past CCPA Enforcement Sets Path For Compliance Efforts
The California Privacy Protection Agency and the California Attorney General's Office haven't skipped a beat in investigating potential noncompliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act, and six broad issues will continue to dominate the enforcement landscape and inform compliance strategy, say attorneys at Reed Smith.
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Securing A Common Understanding Of Language Used At Trial
Witness examinations in the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump illustrate the importance of building a common understanding of words and phrases and examples as a fact-finding tool at trial, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.