Last week the U.S. Supreme Court ended its 2011-12 Term. Here are summaries of the labor and employment cases decided this term.
Hosanna-Taylor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, (No. 10-553) (holding that teacher at religious school qualified as a "minister" within the meaning of the ministerial exception to Title VII and therefore
When is an employee’s claim for injuries against its nonsubscriber employer occurring in the course and scope of employment a health care liability claim? According to the Supreme Court of Texas, when the employer is a health care provider.
In Texas West Oaks Hosp. v. Williams, Williams was employed by a nonsubscriber psychiatric hospital. Williams was
The Texas Supreme Court held that an age discrimination plaintiff is never entitled to an inference of age discrimination at the prima facie case where the employee’s replacement is older than plaintiff-employee. In that situation, the plaintiff must establish a prima facie case through direct evidence of age discrimination.
Gloria Garcia (age 48) was terminated
Prevailing plaintiffs in employment discrimination, harassment and retaliation cases can recover attorney’s fees their attorney’s incur in prosecuting those claims. In many instances the attorney’s fees sought can exceed the monetary relief the plaintiff obtains and can act as a serious impediment to prompt settlement.
Since most of these cases are done on a contingency
Common law employment claims have certain advantages for plaintiffs over statutory discrimination, harassment or retaliation claims. For starters, there are no administrative prerequisites to exhaust and the kinds of damages one can seek for common law claims can sometimes be be more "creative" than the straight forward, capped damages recoverable under statutory claims. In my nonscientific, anecdotal
Texas is an at-will employment state where employees and employers are free to end the employment relationship at any time and almost for any reason. The Texas Supreme Court has created a single public policy exception to the at-will employment rule –the Sabine Pilot wrongful discharge claim. Under that judicially created claim, an employee has a
The Texas Supreme Court issued an opinion this morning holding that advising an at-will employee that his employment will be terminated if he does not sign a mutual waiver to resolve disputes without a jury is not unlawful coercion sufficient to sset aside the agreement. If you read this blog frequently, you know I am a big proponent
Covenant not to compete cases normally arise when an employer seeks to enforce a restrictive covenant by having a former employee enjoined from breaching the covenant and working for a competitor. They can also arise when the employee is not expressly prohibited from competing, but is subjected to severe economic penalty if he engages in
The Dodd-Frank Act created a "reward" (bounty) program for whistle blowers that voluntarily provide original information of fraud or unlawful activity in violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other securities law violations. The Dodd-Frank Act also provides whistle blowers protection from retaliation and renders pre-dispute arbitration agreements of whistle blower
Today the Texas Supreme Court held that when an employee is employed by two employers (a staff leasing company and client company in this case) and both employers have workers’ compensation insurance, the workers’ compensation exclusivity provisions apply to bar negligence claims asserted by the deceased employee’s parents. You can review a copy of the