Valley Hospital recently argued before the New Jersey Supreme Court to overturn a $26 million verdict that a jury awarded the North Jersey Brain and Spine Center (NJBSC) and its 11 neurosurgeons following a four-week trial. According to the hospital, the neurosurgeon group failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, and the trial court should have dismissed the case before it ever went to trial before Read More

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Tenth Circuit recently heard oral arguments in a proposed class action lawsuit involving Amazon warehouse workers and the computation of overtime pay. The judges appeared skeptical of Amazon’s arguments against the workers’ claims that their employer wrongfully failed to pay them overtime pay for weeks in which they received holiday incentive pay. The case is Hamilton v. Read More

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has posted an employment ad seeking eight attorneys to work in its Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP). The LinkedIn ad appeared soon after the filing of a lawsuit in Louisiana last month by six plaintiffs who allege injuries from the COVID-19 vaccine against the federal government. These individuals are seeking to overturn the immunity that the feds granted big Read More

A California appellate court has upheld the trial court’s dismissal of a county employee’s sexual harassment claim. The court found that isolated, minor instances of alleged harassment were insufficient to sustain the worker’s claim. The case is Robinson v. County of Los Angeles, Calif. Ct. App., No. B317521 (Nov. 8, 2023). The employee worked as a student professional worker in a county public defender's office, Read More

A former Texas state trooper recently won a $2.4 million verdict against the Texas Highway Patrol under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). In his lawsuit, the former law enforcement officer alleged that the state agency failed to accommodate a disability that he sustained during military service. Although a Texas appellate court ruled in 2018 that the state had immunity from the Read More

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a lawsuit against Weis Markets, a Pennsylvania supermarket chain. In the lawsuit, the EEOC alleges that a supervisor subjected an employee to sexual harassment, and the employer fired her after she refused to comply with its unlawful directive to participate in the company employee assistance program (EAP). The employee reportedly reported her Read More

The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments in Murray v. UBS Securities, a whistleblower retaliation case. In this case, the Court is considering whether whistleblowers alleging retaliation by their employers must prove that they acted with retaliatory intent. Murray worked for UBS as a strategist in its mortgage strategy group. UBS laid him off in 2008 due to a reduction in force due to the financial crisis Read More

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued proposed guidance entitled “Enforcement Guidance for Harassment in the Workplace” for employers enforcing laws that prohibit workplace harassment. The guidance, which the EEOC published in the Federal Register on October 2, 2023, provides the legal standards for workplace harassment claims and updated examples to illustrate situations that could lead to Read More

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a final rule on October 26, 2023, that expanded the standard for when two employers conducting business with one another are considered joint employers under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Being joint employers subjects them to various responsibilities under the NLRA, including being potentially liable for the unfair labor practices of one another. The Read More

A disabled employee has sued his employer after he was fired for failing to return to the office following the COVID-19 pandemic. Zacchery Beval, who suffers from various medical conditions, has filed suit against his former employer, Electric Boat Corp., alleging discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act. He claims that Electric Boat failed to Read More