The Mount Desert Islander published the article below about the Maine Employee Rights Group’s (MERG) lawsuit against Mt. Desert Hospital. Lawsuit alleges discrimination BANGOR — A former Mount Desert Island Hospital employee has filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming the hospital failed to accommodate her disability stemming from medical…
This week, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution that repealed a regulation from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regarding the reporting of workplace injuries. The President is expected to sign the repeal into law. The repealed regulation allowed OSHA inspectors to fine corporations who failed to properly record…
Last week the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill called the “Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2017.” This bill would significantly weaken workers’ ability to band together and bring class actions. Some have argued that it would essentially eliminate certain types of class actions. Class actions are…
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that a jury could reasonably find that a Sheriff unlawfully sexually harassed one of his female corrections officers because he repeatedly hugged her and, on one occasion, kissed her. The female corrections officer complained to supervisors about the Sheriff’s harassment but…
The Washington Post recently ran a story about a class action sex discrimination case against Sterling Jewelers, the company behind Jared the Galleria of Jewelry and Kay Jewelers. The women who filed the case initiated it in 2008 but the public knew nothing about the case until recently because Sterling…
Maine’s new marijuana law, which recently went into effect and permits some recreational marijuana use, contains a provision that prohibits employers from discriminating against workers who are 21 years old or older because they use marijuana outside of work. At the same time, the law specifically permits employers to prohibit…
An African American man, Russell Lopes, recently won a $4 million jury verdict in a case against the Town of Brockton. Lopes’ attorneys argued that Brockton discriminated against him because of his race when it refused to hire him for a job with the Department of Public Works (DPW) and…
In almost every workplace, information is communicated and stored electronically. Email, scanned documents, spreadsheets, databases, memos, letters, and more are all stored electronically. These troves of electronic information often contain the evidence that lawyers need to prove illegal activity. Even when a wrongdoer tries to cover their tracks, electronic storage…
A federal court in Connecticut has held that a jury could reasonably find that a cellphone company doing business as Verizon Wireless discriminated against an employee because of his disability. The employee, Edward Green, had a history of chronic back pain stemming from a back injury that required surgery. He…
Earlier this month in New Jersey, a federal jury found that Lockheed Martin had discriminated against one of its employees because of his age and awarded that employee $51.5 million. Reports about the case indicate that the jury heard evidence that Lockheed Martin had a practice of laying off older…