By: Matthew H. Fry, Esquire [email protected] Recently at the Women in the World Conference, attorney Nancy Erica Smith warned, “HR is not your friend. HR will not help you.” Ms. Smith recently represented former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson in her sexual harassment suit against network founder Roger Ailes. “The first call you make is to […]
By: Lisanne L. Mikula April 6, 2017 On April 4, 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit became the first federal appeals court to hold that a person who alleges that she experienced employment discrimination on the basis of her sexual orientation has stated a claim of sex discrimination under Title VII. […]
By: Lisanne L. Mikula, Esquire [email protected] The manager of a fast food restaurant in Missouri has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the December 2016 suicide of a teenaged worker she supervised. The felony complaint alleges that the manager’s bullying of the teen contributed to the young man’s tragic decision to end his […]
By: Pamela A. Lee, Esquire [email protected] In matter of first impression, the Commonwealth Court recently held that a local government agency – which includes school districts – can be liable to an employee for workplace exposure to asbestos dust if the condition causing exposure falls within one of the exceptions to governmental immunity. The case is Geier […]
By: Pamela A. Lee, Esquire [email protected] If you think about it, social media is a treasure trove of information in litigation. What types of things do you post or comment on? Will it come back to haunt you in 2 or 4 or 6 years? A plaintiff’s Facebook post – and a comment from the […]
By: Pamela A. Lee, Esquire [email protected] In September, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”)-a federal agency that controls Medicare and Medicaid funding-announced comprehensive revisions to the federal nursing home regulations, including a ban on pre-dispute arbitration agreements. The new rule banning pre-dispute arbitration agreements-along with most of the new rules-was scheduled to take […]
By: Lisanne L. Mikula, Esquire [email protected] A recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) found that an employee could not be terminated because he had warned a co-worker that the co-worker might be fired. Rather, the NLRB held that the employee’s termination-and the employer’s handbook policies upon which that termination was based-violated the […]
By: Matthew H. Fry, Esquire [email protected] Several years ago, I began volunteering for Wills for Heroes, a non-profit organization that provides free basic estate plans to military veterans, police, firefighters, correction officers and first responders. Wills for Heroes was formed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in response to a staggering statistic that over 90% of […]
By: Lisanne L. Mikula, Esquire [email protected] About two years ago, my colleague Pamela A. Lee and I -at the time both relatively new to the Delaware County Bar- were swapping stories about professional organizations in which we had been involved over the years. Pamela shared with me her experiences with an organization that fostered […]
By: Lisanne L. Mikula Esquire [email protected] When an employee with a disability requests an accommodation in order to perform the essential functions of his or her job, the employer has the responsibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act to clarify what the employee needs and to identify the appropriate reasonable accommodation which will enable the employee […]
