Constitutional Law › Personal Injury › Labor & Employment Law

Escalating Penalties: Alberta OHS Convictions For 2012 – What Can Employers Expect For The Year Ahead?

A person who contravenes Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, Regulations or Code is liable, for a first offence, to a fine of not more than $500,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months and, for a...more

Sexual Harassment Complaints Are Subject To Anti-SLAPP Motions To Strike

Plaintiff Lisa Aber sued her employer and two of its employees, alleging that the employees had sexually assaulted her. Michael Comstock, one of the employee defendants, filed a cross-complaint against Aber, alleging claims...more

No Disability Discrimination Where Employee Cannot Competently Perform Job, Ninth Circuit Holds

In Lawler v. Montblac North American LLC, the plaintiff, Cynthia Lawler, a store manager at a boutique retail store, was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. Lawler initiated the action after Defendant employer terminated her...more

Constitutional exceptions in religous employment

Religious entities and communities of faith and their insurance carriers can take heart in pursuing defense judgments after the U.S. Supreme Court acted swiftly and unanimously in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and...more

I Know What You Did Last Night: Employer GPS Monitoring

The US Supreme Court ruled last month that a warrant is required for police to track a suspect with a GPS device, or the search violates the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable searches.  Many...more

Options for Suing the Federal Government Under Bivens Unlikely to Expand

In 2001, federal inmate Richard Lee Pollard sustained two broken elbows after tripping over a cart in a privately operated prison housing federal inmates. He sued five prison employees for their actions after his injuries. On...more

Contract to pay dollars is a contract to pay coined silver

A contract to pay dollars, is according to the Supreme Court of the United States, a contract to pay lawful money of the United States. Lawful money of the United States is money declared to be legal tender in payment. ...more

Sheriff — Not of the Locality, Not of the Commonwealth: Doud v. Commonwealth of Virginia

The Virginia Supreme Court has issued new opinions for September, but none are cases involving local governments, at least not on appeal. Here is the link to the opinions of the Virginia Supreme Court: (see article below for...more

Weekly Law Resume - September 15, 2011: Qualified Immunity Does Not Apply Where Officer Mistakenly Pulls Gun Instead of Taser

Maria Torres, et al. v. City of Madera, et al. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (August 22, 2011) This case is an important progression in stun-gun-related police liability law, establishing how mistaken-draw cases should...more

U.S. Court Has Jurisdiction Over Argentinian Employees' Claims Against Mercedes-Benz Argentina

Bauman v. Daimler Chrysler Corp., 2011 WL 1879210 (9th Cir. 2011) In this case, 22 Argentinian residents (including a Chilean national) sued DaimlerChrysler Aktiengesellschaft (“DCAG”) in federal court in California,...more

Manager's Defamation Action Against Striking Union Could Proceed

Price v. Operating Eng'rs Local Union No. 3, 195 Cal. App. 4th 962 (2011) During the course of a strike, members of the union placed copies of a flyer on the doors and cars of the neighbors of the employer’s vice...more

California Supreme Court Schedules Oral Argument for April

• Oasis West Realty v. Goldman (S181781) – Does an attorney’s duty of loyalty owed to a former client apply when the attorney actively takes a position against the former client on the same issue for which the lawyer...more

Liability for Snow and Ice Removal

Client Alert about the Massachusetts laws regarding liability for damages from snow and ice...more

Chief Justice Ronald M. George: The Most Notable Opinions

For the final day of our profile of retiring California Chief Justice Ronald M. George, we offer our own subjective list of the Chief Justice’s most notable opinions. If anyone has a nomination for a favorite case that...more

Survey Of West Virginia Employment Privacy Law

GENERAL COMMENTS West Virginia has a two-tiered court system consisting of circuit courts at the trial level with only discretionary appeal to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. There is no intermediate court of...more

Connick, et al., v. Thompson

Brief of Amici Curiae Alliance Defense Fund and CATO Institute In Support of Respondent

If a man is wrongfully convicted and held on death row for 18 years — 14 in solitary confinement — because prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence in his case, is there any reason that courts should keep him from recovering...more

Pick a Little, Talk a Lot, Get Fired

As far as I can tell, it is human nature to gripe. But there can be consequences to public griping, and not just griping via social media. The latest social media tempest is CNN Mideast Editor Octavia Nasr, who tweeted...more

Stuart v. TUSD

Appeal from Denial of SLAPP

Appeal from denial of SLAPP motion. Court of Appeal opinion....more

Resolving a Key Legal Issue, California Supreme Court Holds Individual Employees Not Liable for Retaliation Under the FEHA

California?s Fair Employment and Housing Act (?FEHA?) prohibits employers from discriminating against or harassing their employees on the basis of protected categories. Likewise, the FEHA prohibits employers from retaliating...more