Category: Litigation Issues
CONTRASTS IN CLAIMS: EVALUATING EMOTIONAL DISTRESS—Part II— A “False Claim” Barbara Long, M.D., Ph.D., A.B.P.N. Employment law Title VII claims often include claims of significant emotional distress allegedly caused by inappropriate remarks, touches, and other behaviors in the workplace. When a supervisor, as opposed to a coworker, has been the alleged instigator of the reportedly offensive behavior, emotional distress claims...
Quirky Question # 97: One of our employees became disabled. He successfully applied for Social Security benefits on the ground that he was permanently disabled from working. The EEOC now has filed an action against our company, contending that we discriminated against our former employee on the basis of his disability. If our employee is “permanently disabled from working,” how...
CONTRASTS IN CLAIMS: EVALUATING EMOTIONAL DISTRESS—Part I—the “Eggshell Plaintiff” Barbara Long, M.D., Ph.D., A.B.P.N. Employment law Title VII claims often include allegations of significant emotional distress allegedly caused by reportedly inappropriate remarks, touches, and other behaviors in the workplace. When a supervisor, as opposed to a coworker, has been the alleged instigator of the reportedly offensive behavior, emotional distress claims...
It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over, or How to Convert a Successful Mediation to a Done Deal By: Joan S. Morrow, Attorney and Mediator You and your client settle a case at mediation. Great! But, alas, the end of the mediation marks the beginning of weeks or sometimes even months of protracted negotiations over the language of the settlement agreement...
Quirky Question # 75: We are a California employer and were just hit with a lawsuit by a former employee for acts that supposedly took place almost three years ago. Our former employee alleges that in January 2006, his supervisor asked him to fire three Asian-Americans who work in an otherwise all Caucasian department. The former employee alleges that he...
Quirky Question # 63: We are defending against a claim of age discrimination. The plaintiff has lined up a number of current and former employees, each of whom apparently intend to testify that during their employment, they also were (or are) victims of age discrimination. Is this legit? These other individuals never filed claims of age discrimination against us.
Quirky Question # 56: Our company is committed to eliminating sexual harassment. We have a well-defined sexual harassment policy that is included in our employee handbook. We also have conducted training sessions on a bi-annual basis to ensure our employees understand our company’s position on sexual harassment. Some time ago, one of our employees complained of sexual harassment. For various...
Quirky Question # 34: We continue to confront periodically lawsuits from former employees that are utterly frivolous. Some of the claims make you shake your head in disbelief. We’d like to file malicious prosecution lawsuits against the individuals who file these bogus claims. Are there any downsides to this approach? Could someone argue that the lawsuits we are contemplating are...
Quirky Question # 24: We run a large food service company, with more than 100,000 employees. Notwithstanding our best efforts to train our store managers regarding federal and state employment laws, we invariably have problems that result in claims of discrimination being filed with the EEOC or parallel state agencies. In our experience, these federal and state agencies do not...
Quirky Question # 22: Our company decided to close one of its two manufacturing facilities in Minnesota. In deciding which facility to close, we considered factors such as the relative productivity of the facilities and the age and condition of the buildings and equipment. The employees of our closed facility will receive separation benefits in exchange for signing a release...
