This one is a bit of a total stretch. It’s about an employment law-adjacent lawsuit. The owner of a limited liability company filed suit under 42 U.S.C. §1981, claiming that another company discriminated on account of race by evicting the LLC for failure to pay rent. The district court dismissed…
Articles Posted in Attorney Practice Tips
Court to employers: Don’t wait too long to arbitrate employments claims
A recent federal appellate court decision is an important reminder to confirm early—not later—whether the employee suing your business signed an arbitration agreement. The plaintiff had signed an agreement with an arbitration provision that covered his subsequent claims for disability discrimination, which he filed in federal court. But the employer…
Here’s what happens when a judge catches a plaintiff fabricating evidence of sexual harassment
Spoiler alert: it often doesn’t end well for the plaintiff or their lawyer. For example, let’s discuss this Second Circuit decision in which a plaintiff had sued her employer and two of its employees, asserting claims of sexual harassment during and retaliatory discharge from her employment. For a time, it…
Instead of hiring a lawyer, a business owner ordered to pay wages used AI to prepare his appeal. It was a giant clusterf**k!
A multi-year dispute over unpaid wages went from bad to a whole lot worse for a Midwest business owner when he decided to appeal a trial court ruling that he owed over $300k in wages, damages, and attorney’s fees by representing himself and hiring an “online consultant” who used artificial…
Employers are singing the praises for the EEOC’s online mediation program
As an employment law mediator, my resume includes many years of private practice and service to some federal courts. But I cut my chops at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and have remained a volunteer mediator with the EEOC for over a decade. If anyone asked me what I…
See you in court, err, arbitration! SCOTUS to decide whether litigating an employment dispute first precludes arbitrating it later
Freepik, Vital Gorbachev, Smashicons edited by Bruce The Deus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons If your company makes its employees sign arbitration agreements, then this post is for you. The rest of you can get an early start on happy hour find something else to read while sipping your…
How much social media discovery can you get from an employee who sues you for discrimination?
Ibrahim.ID, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons It depends. (Sorry). But, for added context, I love this quote from a recent Maryland federal court opinion: [There are] complexities in relying on a party’s social media postings as an unvarnished chronicle of their lives or a contemporaneous journal of their true…
Two for Tuesday? Or just a heads up that The Employer Handbook Zoom Office Hour returns this Friday at Noon ET
Image Credit: Photfunia.com Last Friday, I had a great time with special guest Abigail Morrow on The Employee Handbook Zoom Office Hour. (If you missed it, check out the replay here on The Employer Handbook YouTube Channel.) So let’s run it back this Friday at Noon ET on Zoom. This…
Yesterday, the Internet remained undefeated! 🙀
Image Credit: Zoom and YouTube “I’m not a cat.” Bruh… I’m not a cat either. And I’ll prove it when The Employer Handbook Zoom Office Hour returns this Friday at Noon ET, when I’ll be joined by another non-cat, Abigail Morrow. Abigail is Assistant General Counsel at Staffmark Group, a…
A large law firm is reportedly requiring vaccinations before working in the office again 💉💪
Image by Shafin Al Asad Protic from Pixabay Let’s discuss. No vaccine? Stay home, says one law firm. On Friday, Aebra Coe at Law360 reported here (subscription required) that a Seattle-based law firm with over 500 attorneys and 2019 revenues of more than $400,000,000 “has adopted a vaccine policy for…