Overlawyered » sued if you do

Rules against employee fraternization — and how they can backfire

Walter Olson — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:49:29 +0000

In an effort to reduce possible exposure to harassment claims, employers have occasionally adopted “anti-fraternization” policies that prohibit some types of contact between employees, as by prohibiting male and female employees from being alone together behind closed doors. It has long been predicted that such policies might themselves generate worker discontent and result in litigation. Now a woman is suing Dallas-based law firm Scheef & Stone LLP alleging, among other things, that its former anti-fraternization rules kept female employees from developing mentor relationships and resulted in their being marginalized in the workplace. [Courthouse News via Becket Adams, The Blaze]

Tags: harassment law, sued if you do

Rules against employee fraternization — and how they can backfire is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Does Cabbie’s Fear of Dogs Trump Requirement to Allow Service Dogs?”

Walter Olson — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:44:51 +0000

In Connecticut, disability vs. disability: “A cab driver who claims he suffers from cynophobia (a fear of dogs) and who refused to pick up a blind customer with a service dog has filed a federal lawsuit against his employer for discrimination on account of his disability after he was fired.” [Daniel Schwartz]

Tags: service animals, sued if you do

“Does Cabbie’s Fear of Dogs Trump Requirement to Allow Service Dogs?” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Sued if you do dept.: unhappy town hall in New Jersey

Walter Olson — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 04:14:55 +0000

Parsippany, N.J. hired a new town clerk last year, but her tenure does not seem to have proved a long or happy one: four office employees soon filed complaints against her, “charging her with making racial, sexual and religious statements that left them feeling uncomfortable in the workplace,” and she filed counter-complaints. “All of the grievances were dismissed by township administration, and both sides filed suit against the town.” Now the town has paid $200,000 to resolve the former town clerk’s claims, which she has not elaborated publicly on advice of counsel, while the status of the office workers’ $4 million claim is not clear. [Parsippany Patch via NJLRA]

Tags: New Jersey, public employment, sued if you do

Sued if you do dept.: unhappy town hall in New Jersey is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 4 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:40:04 +0000

Verbal fireworks from Judge Kozinski in Ninth Circuit “stolen valor” case [Above the Law]
Measure of artificially contrived scarcity: “NYC Taxi Medallions Approach $1 Million.” Would officials in Washington, D.C. really consider introducing such a destructive system? [Perry, more]
Workers’ comp OK’d in case where simulated chicken head blamed for subsequent emotional disability [Lowering the Bar]
“NBA referee sues sports writer over tweet” [Siouxsie Law] “Lessons from Dan Snyder’s Libel Suit” [Paul Alan Levy/CL&P, earlier]
Litigation rates similar for poor and good nursing homes, researchers find [US News] Effects of medical liability reform in Texas [White Coat, scroll] New York’s Cuomo caves on medical liability plan [Heritage] Sued if you do, sued if you don’t in the emergency room [same]
“Federal Government Wants to Bully School Bullies, and Demands School Help” [Doherty, Bader, Popehat, Bernstein] New York law firm launches school-bullying practice [Constitutional Daily]
Mass tort settlements: “The market for specious claims” [S. Todd Brown, Buffalo, SSRN]
Could Gene McCarthy’s candidacy have survived Arizona elections law? [Trevor Burrus, HuffPo]

Tags: Alex Kozinski, bullying, campaign regulation, emergency medicine, libel slander and defamation, mass tort fraud, nursing homes, NYC, sports, sued if you do, Texas, Twitter, workers' compensation

April 4 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Shot if you do, sued if you don’t

Walter Olson — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:31:39 +0000

“There’s no doubt delivering food is a risky job — it routinely ranks on the U.S. Bureau of Labor’s most-dangerous jobs list — and after last week’s much-publicized robbery of a Chinese food deliveryman, some restaurants might be inclined to avoid delivery to high-crime areas. But in doing so, restaurants might open themselves up to civil litigation regulating anti-discrimination practices, essentially creating a catch-22 for the businesses, legal experts said.” [Harrisburg Patriot-News]

Tags: discrimination law, restaurants, sued if you do

Shot if you do, sued if you don’t is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Sued if you do, sued if you don’t dept.: laminated vs. tempered glass

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:50:35 +0000

As we have seen in earlier coverage, automakers will get sued over some kinds of accident if they decide to use laminated glass, and sued over others if they decide to use nonlaminated glass. Now Ted at Point of Law has details of another case, this one against Ford, in which the South Carolina Supreme Court held that NHTSA regulations resolved the issue at hand and should not be second-guessed by tort litigation. Unfortunately, as Ted notes, the trial bar and its allies in the Obama administration are doing their best to weaken the preemption defense, which would open up maximum scope for sued-if-you-do, sued-if-you-don’t litigation of this sort.

Tags: Ford, preemption, South Carolina, sued if you do, tempered glass

Sued if you do, sued if you don’t dept.: laminated vs. tempered glass is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Oz: “Letter bomber Colin Dunstan wins compensation”

Walter Olson — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 05:09:41 +0000

Australia: “A man who held the nation to ransom with a letter-bomb campaign has won compensation linked to the failed workplace love affair that sparked the terror reign.” [Herald-Sun] In other Antipodean workplace news, a man currently jailed on child porn charges has won an unfair dismissal case against his former employer, food company Nestle, notwithstanding “allegations that he had routinely harassed women in the workplace, and even attempted sabotage” by placing a sexual drawing into a box of the company’s products. [Herald-Sun]

Tags: Australia, criminals who sue, sued if you do, workplace

Oz: “Letter bomber Colin Dunstan wins compensation” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Domino’s sued in murder of deliveryman

Walter Olson — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:30:29 +0000

Springfield, Mass.: The parents’ suit charges that the chain wrongfully sent Corey Lind out to deliver pizza to dangerous and unknown addresses; he was ambushed and murdered in 2007. Noteworthy angle:

According to the suit, prior to 2000 Domino’s had a policy of not making or of limiting deliveries to certain areas.

As a result of discrimination claims against the company, the federal Department of Justice investigated the policy. The result was an agreement between the government and Domino’s establishing procedures Domino’s could use to limit or stop deliveries to certain areas based on safety.

The suit said that Domino’s required all stores to implement a Limited Delivery Service Policy which, among other things, would evaluate each store’s delivery and service area and provide for the safety of delivery workers.

Tags: restaurants, sued if you do, third party liability for crime

Domino’s sued in murder of deliveryman is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Update: “UPS to allow hard-of-hearing drivers”

Walter Olson — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:27:46 +0000

Sued-if-you-do, sued-if-you-don’t dept.: “United Parcel Service tentatively settled a 10-year-old lawsuit Tuesday by agreeing to allow some deaf and hard-of-hearing employees to compete for jobs driving small delivery vans after special testing and training. …UPS argued that deaf drivers were more likely to get into accidents because they couldn’t hear sirens, screeching tires or other danger signals.” [Egelko/SF Chronicle] We covered the litigation in 2006.

Tags: disabled rights, safety, sued if you do

Update: “UPS to allow hard-of-hearing drivers” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t files: United Airlines customer service

Ted Frank — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:56:17 +0000

There is a horrifying tale on Consumerist about a family that missed a flight to visit their dying mother in the hospital because a ticket agent refused to help them because it was time for her break. What the story doesn’t tell you, and what none of the commenters seem to realize, is that it’s the trial lawyers that put United Airlines in that situation. ~~Oregon labor laws~~ California labor laws require workers to be permitted to take breaks; plaintiffs’ attorneys have made a multi-million-dollar cottage industry out of class action lawsuits against employers where customer service was permitted to take priority and workers occasionally didn’t take their breaks. (In California, the penalty for failing to provide a ten-minute break is an hour of pay.) To avoid this, the employer has to enforce the break period stringently, because they can potentially be held liable even if the employee voluntarily avoids the break.

Tags: airlines, sued if you do, wage and hour suits

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t files: United Airlines customer service is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system