Civil Rights › Civil Remedies › Civil Procedure

Record $240M Award for Abuse of Disabled Workers Slashed to $1.6M

A jury verdict earlier this month to mentally disabled workers who were abused and forced to live in a “house of horrors” has been drastically slashed after trial....more

"My Prior Complaint Was One Of The Reasons For The Adverse Employment Action": Mixed Motive Theories For Retaliation Claims Under...

Recently, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar, which addresses the causation standard for retaliation claims under Title VII. The Supreme Court has already held...more

It's Not Defamation if No One Knows It's You -- Sammy Hagar Defeats Defamation Claim

The first element of defamation is sometimes forgotten. The defamatory statement must be about the plaintiff. In most instances that will be self-evident, but sometimes the identity of the person being defamed will be known...more

Monty Green v. The City of New York, et al.

Complaint

More importantly, at no time, did any internal investigator observe him solicit anyone for sexual favors in exchange for monies; observe him hire anyone as a sex worker to perform sexual favors for others in exchange for...more

Courts Hold Employers In Contempt For Violating EEOC Settlement Agreements

Employers that ignore consent decrees (court-approved settlement agreements) may be held in contempt of court and subject to additional fines, sometimes totaling $1,000 for each day of noncompliance. Recent contempt orders by...more

How to Use the “Wall of Wrong” to Determine if a Proposed Defamation Case is a SLAPP -- Shaheen Sadeghi v. Delilah Snell

The tale starts with an article in OC Weekly. The article was about a guy named Shaheen Sadeghi. The article was extremely favorable to Sadeghi, referring to him as the “Curator of Cool” and discussing his amazing success in...more

Anti-SLAPP Law Does Not Protect Civil Extortion by Attorneys

Despite the prohibitions against doing so, some attorneys can’t resist throwing a threat of criminal action into their demand letters. They apparently think (if they give it any thought at all) that an express or veiled...more

Miguel Mendoza v. Reed K. Hamzeh

Court Rules that Attorney's Demand Letter is Not Protected under Anti-SLAPP Law

Following the prior decision of Flatley v. Mauro, the California Court of Appeal in Miguel Mendoza v. Reed K. Hamzeh finds that a demand letter from an attorney which threatens criminal prosecution is not protected under the...more

Fifth Circuit: No Fee Shifting For Title VII Mixed-Motive Retaliation Claims

On April 3, 2013, the Fifth Circuit affirmed a ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas that a plaintiff was not entitled to attorney’s fees and costs under Title VII (42 U.S.C. § 2000 e-5(g))...more

Employers Sanctioned By Federal Courts For Destroying Records

Employers in two recent EEOC cases were sanctioned by federal courts for destroying employee records. These rulings illustrate the need for employers to develop and implement document retention procedures to avoid costly...more

Naffe v. Frey, et al.

Reply Brief in Support of Motion to Dismiss First Amended Complaint for Failure to State a Claim (FRCP 12(b)(6))

In his Renewed Motion to Dismiss (“the Motion”), Mr. Frey established that the First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) fails utterly, as did its predecessor, to meet the standards required to sustain a lawsuit under Fed. R. Civ. P....more

Supervalu/Jewel Food Held in Contempt for Breaching Consent Decree Settling Earlier EEOC Disability Discrimination Suit

Federal Court Also Rules That Agency Is Entitled To Discovery and Evidentiary Hearings - CHICAGO - A federal judge has held Supervalu, Inc., which owns the Jewel-Osco chain of stores, in contempt for failing to comply...more

Argument Report: Illinois Supreme Court Considers Whether Cook County Commission on Human Rights Can Award Punitive Damages

On Tuesday morning, the Illinois Supreme Court gave little concrete indication of how it will likely rule during oral argument on Crittenden v. Cook County Commission on Human Rights. Counsel for the Commission and the...more

The California Supreme Court Provides Mixed Result in Mixed Motive Terminations

In Harris v. City of Santa Monica, (2013) 56 Cal.4th 203, the California Supreme Court provided long-awaited clarification of the standards that apply when an employer terminates an employee for “mixed motives”—that is, when...more

EEOC Sanctioned for Failing to Produce Class Claimants' Social Media ESI and Other e-Discovery Misconduct

In EEOC v. The Original HoneyBaked Ham Company of Georgia Inc., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26887 (D. Colo. Feb. 27, 2013), the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado sanctioned the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission...more

The ERISA Litigation Newsletter - March 2013

In this Issue: - Editor's Overview - Risk of Addiction Relapse May Entitle Plan Participants to Disability Benefits - Rulings, Filings, and Settlements of Interest ...more

Employment Law Reporter – March 2013: Pregnant With Practical Possibilities

California state courts see an average of ten to twenty employment lawsuits filed every day. Discrimination and wrongful termination claims are still quite prevalent in those filings. The recent California Supreme Court case...more

Perils of Ambiguity in Rule 68 Offer of Judgment

Through the recent employment law 7th Cir. decision in Sanches v. Prudential Pizza, Inc. we examine the danger of failing to be sufficiently specific and clear in a Rule 68 offer of judgment which there resulted in the...more

7th Circuit Extends Bivens Civil Rights Actions to Brady Violations

This week we examine the hugely important 7th Circuit case Engel v. Buchan that found that the violations of the Brady v. Maryland right requiring a prosecutor to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence to a criminal...more

Michigan ATMs Hit With Class Action Lawsuits Alleging Non-Compliance With ADA Requirements

The first ATM accessibility class-action lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") were filed in federal district court in Michigan earlier this month. The class-action lawsuits request a permanent...more

Judicial Economy Implications: Ninth Circuit Sends District Judges Back To School On Calculation Of Attorney Fee Awards

My partner, Gary Bresee, recently blogged on the recent Ninth Circuit decision in Padgett v. Loventhal, 2013 DAR 1933 (2013). As Gary noted, in that case, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overruled the...more

Larry Jackson v. The City of New York, et al.

Amended Complaint

A NYPD officer claims in a lawsuit that he may be forced to retire due to a hand injury he sustained during a brutal beat-down by fellow officers outside his Queens home. Larry Jackson contends the cops – who responded to...more

Lisette Pedrosa v. The City of New York, et al.

Verified Complaint

Pedrosa, who is a Puerto Rican Female, says that from January 2010 through this day, she has been retaliated against after complaining about being subjected to the highly offensive sexual conduct of Lieutenant Salvatore...more

California Supreme Court Eliminates Damages in FEHA Discrimination Cases Where Employer Proves Mixed Motive Defense

Earlier this month, the California Supreme Court issued a ruling clarifying details of the “mixed-motive” defense applicable to discrimination claims under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”). Harris v....more

California Supreme Court Rules On Mixed Motive Defense To Discrimination Claims, But Large Verdicts Persist…

Wynona Harris, a bus driver for the City of Santa Monica (the City), alleged that she was fired because of her pregnancy in violation of the prohibition against sex discrimination under the Fair Employment and Housing Act...more