A tenured professor at Erskine College in Due West claimed the institution breached its employment contract with him as set forth in the faculty manual. The trial court overruled the jury verdict in the professor’s favor, but...more
11/9/2020
/ Breach of Contract ,
Contract Disputes ,
Contract Terms ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Teachers ,
Tenure
My articles usually analyze a particular case and the impact of the court's decision on the relationship between employers and employees. With the release of a number of decisions addressing employment at will earlier this...more
We’ve often written about the need to have clearly written policies that, once in place, are followed. If a dispute arises and there is any ambiguity in the policies and how the employer interpreted or used them, juries more...more
8/16/2018
/ Appeals ,
Breach of Contract ,
Colleges ,
Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing ,
Directed Verdicts ,
Early Retirement ,
Emergency Response ,
Emotional Distress Damages ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Evidence ,
Filing Grievances ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict (JNOV) ,
Professors ,
Reversal ,
Student Athletes ,
Tenure ,
Wrongful Termination
At-will employment is the normal employer-employee relationship in South Carolina. In 2004, the state legislature passed a law stating that handbooks that took certain reasonable steps did not create a contractual exception...more
4/24/2018
/ Appeals ,
At-Will Employment ,
Building Codes ,
Construction Industry ,
Construction Permits ,
Directed Verdicts ,
Former Employee ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Medical Leave ,
Public Policy ,
Public Safety ,
Retaliation ,
SC Supreme Court ,
Stop Work Orders ,
Wrongful Termination
In 2-1 decision by a three-judge panel, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose rulings apply to all South Carolina employers) reversed a decision to grant summary judgment—meaning the trial court had found there was no...more
2/22/2018
/ Appeals ,
Burden of Proof ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Former Employee ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Popular ,
Reversal ,
State Agencies ,
State Constitutions ,
Summary Judgment ,
Wage and Hour
A continuing point of contention in employment law revolves around who is an employee versus who is an independent contractor. The issue seems to come up often in wage and hour cases and workers’ compensation or unemployment...more
9/29/2017
/ 1099s ,
Appeals ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Health Insurance ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Right to Control ,
Subcontractors ,
W-2 ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workers' Compensation Claim ,
Workplace Injury
The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose rulings apply to all South Carolina employers) recently decided a religious accommodation case in which a jury awarded a former employee more than half a million dollars. The Equal...more
8/8/2017
/ Appeals ,
Back Pay ,
Biometric Information ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Collateral Source Rule ,
Compensatory Damages ,
Constructive Discharge ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Duty to Mitigate ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Litigation Fees & Costs ,
Lost Wages ,
Permanent Injunctions ,
Punitive Damages ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Retirement Plan ,
Title VII
Lately, we’ve been seeing more cases in which public-sector employees accuse their governmental employer of violating the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Such claims can arise in many ways, but with the...more
6/12/2017
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Appeals ,
Code of Conduct ,
Compelling Governmental Interest ,
Facebook ,
Firemen ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRB ,
Public Concern ,
Public Sector ,
Retaliation ,
Social Media Policy ,
Summary Judgment ,
Wrongful Termination