I’ve written several posts advocating the advantages of employer’s use of waivers of jury trials to resolve employment disputes with employees. (See posts here and here). To recap, the mutual waiver of jury trial provides the employer and employee a fair way to resolve employment disputes without some of the disadvantages that other forms
Judicial Updates
Supreme Court of Texas Agrees to Hear Two Employment Cases
The Supreme Court of Texas has agreed to hear argument in two employment cases.
In Prairie View A&M University v. Diljit K. Chatha, (No. 10-353) the Court agreed to consider whether the 180-day statute of limitations for a government employee’s complaint about discriminatory pay begins from the date of the first paycheck reflecting the decision or the…
Supreme Court Recognizes Third-Party Retaliation Claims under Title VII
The U.S. Supreme Court announced that employees, who never engaged in protected activity, can bring third-party retaliation claims against their employers when they suffer an adverse employment action due to their connection with a person who has engaged in protected activity.
The facts of Thompson v. North American Stainless are straightforward. In February 2003 North American Stainless was…
Dallas Court Vacates Arbitration Award in Discrimination Case Because of Arbitrator’s Failure to Disclose Prior Contacts with Party Representative
It is pretty difficult for a party to get an adverse arbitration award reversed or vacated. A recent Dallas Court of Appeals decision shows the rare instance were such a reversal occurred. In Alim v. KBR (Kellogg, Brown & Root) –Halliburton, the Dallas court held that an arbitrator’s failure to disclose, in an employment discrimination, breach of…
Fifth Circuit Holds that FLSA Action Is Improper Forum for Employer to Seek Set-Off Against Wage and Overtime Claims
Employers often consider asserting counterclaims against employees who file lawsuits against them. Most lawyers representing employers counsel against filing counterclaims except in exceptional cases (e.g., an employee’s theft of trade secrets or breach of a covenant not to compete). However, where an employer pays an employee valuable severance benefits in return for a release…
Texas Court Holds Lilly Ledbetter Principles Inapplicable to Claims Arising Under State Law
The Fort Worth Court of Appeals ruled that the provisions of the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 extending the charge filing deadlines for certain pay discrimination claims should not be automatically applied to pay discrimination claims arising under state law.
In Tarrant Regional Water District v. Villanueva, Tamara Villanueva brought suit against the…
Texas Supreme Court Holds Employers May Be Held Liable for Unilateral Contracts Created with At-will Employees
The Texas Supreme Court held that unilateral contracts can be formed with at-will employees when employers make promises to employees and those employees perform based on that promise. In Vanegas v. American Energy Services, Inc. the Supreme Court was asked to decide the enforceability of an employer’s alleged promise to pay five percent of the proceeds of…
New Jury Verdict Research Indicates Employers Faring Worse in Jury Trials
Manpower has published its most recent research on jury verdicts and the news is not good for employers. According to a summary of the full report:
- Employers won the lowest percentage of discrimination jury trials this decade; only 39 percent. Employers won on 33 percent of age cases and 52 percent of disability discrimination cases. Expect employer’s
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2008 Term U.S. Supreme Court Wrap-up
The U.S. Supreme Court completed its 2008-09 term. On the docket were five cases of interest dealing with employment law. Here is a summary of the holdings in those cases.
- Crawford v. Metropolitan Gov’t of Nashville and Davidson County, Tenn., (2009) An employee’s participation in an employer’s internal harassment investigation by responding to the employer’s questions may constitute protected oppositional activity under Title
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U.S. Supreme Court Holds City Discriminated Against White Connecticut Firefighters
In one of the most anticipated employment discrimination cases in years, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the City of New Haven discriminated against non-minority firefighters when it chose to ignore the test results of a racially-neutral promotional exam because too few minorities scored high enough on the test to be considered for promotion. I previously wrote about this case and outlined…