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Employment: Ex-public defender loses appeal in sexual harassment case
Where a former federal public defender alleged her supervisor and other court personnel were deliberately indifferent to her claims of sexual harassment by her supervisor, and that the employee dispute resolution process was fundamentally unfair, her arguments were rejected.
Labor: Union member sues union for breach of fiduciary duty
Where a union member must demand that their union take action to correct the alleged wrong prior to bringing suit, and the member here requested her union conduct an accounting of union funds and sue an officer for breach of fiduciary duty prior to bring suit, she satisfied this condition precedent.
Employment: Company prevails on discrimination and retaliation claims
Where the record showed an employee was not satisfying the requirements of her position and did not improve her performance after being placed on a corrective action plan, the company prevailed on her discrimination and retaliation claims.
Employment: County terminated employee for serious deficiencies in work performance
Where an openly homosexual male alleged he was terminated for discriminatory or retaliatory reasons, but the record showed he was terminated because of serious deficiencies in his work performance, his former employer prevailed at summary judgment.
Employment: Hostile work environment claim against city of Alexandria is dismissed
Where a city of Alexandria police officer alleged she was exposed to a racial hostile work environment, but her allegations were insufficient to support this claim, it was dismissed.
Employment: Former employee’s suit against city of Manassas is dismissed
Where a former employee asserted a multi-count complaint against the city of Manassas, but she failed to exhaust most of her claims, and the remaining claims were not plausible, the suit was dismissed.
Employment: Sarbanes-Oxley Act retaliation claim is dismissed
Where three former employees of an automobile dealership claimed they were terminated in violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or SOX, but they failed to plead facts plausibly showing that they engaged in protected conduct under the statute, the dealership’s motion to dismiss was granted.
Employment: Plaintiff waited long to assert ADA and Rehabilitation Act claims
Where the plaintiff failed to file suit within 90 days from the date his right-to-sue notice was uploaded to his case portal, his claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act were dismissed. Although the plaintiff contended he had a good faith belief that his filing window ran from when he “actually received” the notice, the Fourth Circuit has rout[...]
Employment: COVID-19 religious discrimination claims are reinstated
Where two employees pleaded facts making it plausible that their beliefs were an essential part of a religious faith and they connected those beliefs to their refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the district court erred in dismissing their Title VII claims.
Employment: Former pizza employee’s hostile work environment claim is dismissed
Where a former Papa Johns’ employee claimed he experienced eight unwanted “brushes, grazes and bumps” from coworkers in 37 days, these allegations fall short of this circuit’s “high bar” for a hostile work environment. Moreover he failed to plead how these contacts interfered with his performance as a Papa Johns’ delivery driver, if at all, or how the conduct was imputable to his emp[...]
Employment: Company prevails on former employee’s ADA claims
Where a former employee failed to show the company’s reasons for his termination – including that he created more work for others, had an inability to work independently and would be consistently found on his phone instead of working – were pretext for disability discrimination and retaliation, the company prevailed on his claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Employment: Conditional certification granted in off-the-clock suit
Where the plaintiff alleged that all putative opt-in members worked for the defendants as coal miners, were subject to the same Mine Safety and Health Administration requirements and company policies and were required to perform pre- and post-shift work because of those policies without receiving proper compensation, his motion for conditional certification was granted.
Legal Tech
- How large language models are leveling the personal injury playing field
- Attorney Share, Lawmatics integrate to automate law firm referrals
- How ransomware tactics against law firms are changing
Verdicts & Settlements
- Motor Vehicle Negligence – Motorcyclist suffers severe injuries in vehicle accident
- Medical Malpractice – Patient dies after alleged improper medicine admin
- Workers’ Compensation-Vehicle accident paralyzes Brazilian cement worker
- Medical Malpractice – Death from cancer followed stomach pain misdiagnosis
- Workers’ Compensation – Seasonal worker paralyzed in tobacco baler accident
Opinion Digests
- Criminal – Defendant convicted based upon Commonwealth witnesses’ testimony
- Zoning – Party failed to show its due process rights were violated
- Tort – Jury’s zero-damages verdict for inmate plaintiff affirmed
- Parent and child – Record supported termination of mother’s parental rights
- Criminal – Man convicted of grand larceny after stealing $26,000
- Parent and child – Brothers dispute who should be their mother’s guardian
- Tort – Allegedly defamatory statements lacked the requisite “sting”
