Where an employee of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, gave sufficient notice that she was requesting leave to treat a serious medical condition, but she was forced to use annual leave because ODNI failed to ...

Tagged with: Employment Discrimination Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where Prince William County required 35 categories of entities, including a church, to obtain a special use permit, or SUP, and the other 34 entities were seemingly secular, the church’s facial challenge to the statute failed. Background Prince William County ...

Tagged with: Administrative Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where a strawberry producer guaranteed the quality of strawberries to its “customers,” and a smoothie café qualified as a “customer,” the producer was liable for the attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in defending lawsuits arising from an outbreak of hepatitis ...

Tagged with: Contract Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where the state of California sent $456 million to the bank of a company from which it ordered 100 million N95 masks, but the state reversed the transaction after learning the company was only recently formed and its owners were ...

Tagged with: Banking Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where there was ample evidence that a physician assistant was terminated because of multiple complaints about his behavior from several individuals, and not because of his complaints about the lack of personal protective equipment, his employers prevailed on the retaliation ...

Tagged with: Employment Discrimination Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where a government employee alleged the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice violated the Privacy Act by disclosing the results of an internal investigation into his conduct, but the disclosure was made in a Freedom of Information Act ...

Tagged with: Commercial Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Although the defendants argued they weren’t liable for alleged violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, because the government failed to prosecute them for defrauding plaintiffs and didn’t order restitution in a related criminal matter, that ...

Tagged with: Judge Leonie M. Brinkema Tort U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where an attorney refused to withdraw his client’s libel complaint despite being told the challenged communication was absolutely privileged, he and his client are liable for the $33,875 in attorneys’ fees. Background On May 5, 2021, the court orally granted ...

Tagged with: Judge Leonie M. Brinkema Sanctions U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where the school district agreed on a plan for the student’s development with his parents, and the district received no additional information that there were significant concerns regarding his social or executive functioning skills, it did not violate the Individuals ...

Tagged with: Administrative Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Although a prevailing party can ordinarily recover its expert fees as part of its bill of costs, a unique statute requires an applicant appealing an adverse trademark decision by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, in federal ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District