Civil Remedies › Business Torts › Labor & Employment Law

Who Owns an Employee’s LinkedIn Account?

LinkedIn is a social media site catering exclusively to professionals with 200 million registered users in 200 countries. For many businesses, marketing via social media is a critical component to success. Employees use...more

Saskatchewan Trial Court Awards Record Punitive Damages for Insurer Bad Faith

A Justice of the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench has assessed punitive damages totalling $4,500,000 against two insurers in a recent trial decision, Branco v. American Home Assurance et. al., 2013 SKQB 98. In rendering a...more

Presentation - Social Networking: An Ethical Issues Update.

The ethical issues surrounding the use of social media in the legal environment is constantly evolving, making it very important for attorneys to keep abreast of recent decisions, regulatory initiatives and legislative...more

The ERISA Litigation Newsletter - April 2013

Editor's Overview - The importance of clear and unambiguous plan language cannot be overstated. The Second Circuit recently applied this well-established principle to conclude that a plan's administrative claims process must...more

Does The Alabama Trade Secrets Act Limit Remedies For Theft Of Information?

Alabama enacted the Alabama Trade Secrets Act (the “ATSA”) in 1987. However, since that time, there have been relatively few reported court decisions analyzing the impact of the ATSA on common law claims. A federal district...more

Monetary Damages Potentially Available For Inadequate Disclosure

In Weaver Bros. Ins. Assoc., Inc. v. Braunstein, No. 11-5407, 2013 WL 1195529 (E.D. Pa. Mar. 25, 2013), a district court denied the plan administrator’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, ruling that monetary relief may be...more

Court Rewrites Plan to Increase Benefits

The Supreme Court’s 2011 CIGNA v. Amara decision suggested that an employer’s pension plan could be rewritten to remedy the employer’s failure to fulfill its disclosure obligations under the Employee Retirement Income...more

Doctrine of Successor Liability: 7th Circuit Expands Federal Standard to FLSA Claim Context

This week we examine the doctrine of successor liability through the 7th Circuits decision to expand application of the federal standard to Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) cases through the Teed v. Thomas & Betts Power...more

Speaking Of . . . Trade Secrets - Damages For Misappropriation Can Be Full Refund Of Ex-Employee’s Severance Pay

When your trade secrets are stolen, you might sue the ex-employee who stole them, or the competing business that’s now in possession of them, or both. What’s an appropriate measure of damages when your trade secrets are...more

Another Court Interprets the CFAA Narrowly

A Southern District of New York judge has joined the growing trend of federal courts that interpret the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to preclude allow recovery for misappropriation of computer information....more

Obligations To Pensioners In An Insolvency: Supreme Court Clarifies The Law

The Supreme Court of Canada overturned the Ontario Court of Appeal today in what is one of the most highly-anticipated cases for the pension and insolvency bars pending before the courts. In Indalex (Re) 2013 SCC 6, the court...more

Employee's Report to Human Resources is Protected by SLAPP Statute

Always remember when reviewing a complaint to see if it is a potential SLAPP that the anti-SLAPP statute is not only about speech, it includes the "freedom of petition for the right of grievances", or simply the right of...more

Supreme Court of Virginia Defines Damages Calculation for Breach of Noncompete

In Preferred Systems Solutions, Inc. v. GP Consulting, LLC, Nos. 11906, 11907 (Sept. 14, 2012), the Supreme Court of Virginia, for the first time, defined how to calculate damages for the breach of a noncompete provision...more

Court of Appeals of Colorado Overturns Jury Verdict on Abuse of Process Counterclaim

Employees aren't equipped with an overwhelming array of weapons to fight back anticompetitive lawsuits. I have written many times on this blog about this topic. In this author's view, the legal system works most...more

Indiana's Wage Payment and Wage Claims Statutes

This week's article is dedicated to a discussion of the recent Indiana Court of Appeals decision in Fox v. Nichter Construction Co., Inc., in which the court examined the interplay of Indiana's Wage Payment and Wage Claim...more

District Courts in the Fourth Circuit Run Full Speed Ahead with Equitable Estoppel Claims

Executive Summary: District Courts in Fourth Circuit allow ERISA claims to go forward premised on oral representations. Prior to Cigna v. Amara, 131 S. Ct. 1866 (2011), the law was clearly established: An employee...more

Cook County Order on Attorneys' Fees Illustrates Factors Used to Assess Bad Faith

Earlier this year, Judge Mary Anne Mason in the Circuit Court of Cook County awarded attorneys' fees to a prevailing defendant under Section 5(i) of the Illinois Trade Secrets Act. That provision allows for a defendant to...more

The ERISA Litigation Newsletter - August 2012

In This Issue: - Editor's Overview - The Affordable Care Act and Its Coverage Mandates for Employers: A Potent Recipe for ERISA Class Actions - Rulings, Filings, and Settlements of Interest ...more

Noncompete News - Speculation is not Enough to Support Trade Secret Misappropriation Claims in California

Executive Summary: The California Court of Appeal recently affirmed an award of over $400,000 in attorneys' fees in favor of a group of ex-employees in a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit filed by their former employer,...more

Court Says It’s Time to Pay The Piper, Even if the Piper Hasn’t Paid: Fee Provisions and Third Party Payments

Employers who have the foresight to draft a non-compete agreement often fail to consider some of the potentially adverse financial ramifications from enforcing the non-compete agreement through litigation. Most employers...more

NJ High Court Rules ‘Willful’ OSHA Violation Doesn’t Overcome Worker’s Compensation Preemption

A willful violation of federal safety standards does not, on its own, overcome the worker’s compensation bar against civil suits, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in its June 26, 2012 decision in Van Dunk v. Reckson Assocs....more

Asadi v. G.E. Energy (USA), LLC

Order of Dismissal

U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas granted dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a former General Electric Co. executive under a federal whistle blowing statute. The court held that the anti-retaliation clauses of the Dodd-Frank...more

Employers Must Carefully Draft Attorneys' Fees Provisions In Non-Compete Agreements

In Rogers v. Vulcan Manufacturing Co., Inc., No. 11-3927 (Fla. 1st DCA June 1, 2012), the First District Court of Appeal explained that employers must carefully draft non-compete agreements to avoid owing attorneys' fees to...more

Ruling Highlights Importance of Fiduciary Process Surrounding 401(k) Plan Fees and Services

On March 31, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri awarded plaintiffs more than $35 million in a class action suit over certain breaches of duty related to 401(k) plan expenses. The case was...more

Tussey v ABB Inc.: A Lesson in Fiduciary Duty

On March 31, 2012, a federal district court in Missouri delivered to a large manufacturer and institutional fiduciary an expensive lesson in ERISA’s fiduciary obligations in Tussey v. ABB, Inc. The plaintiffs are current and...more