May 2011

Clients and potential clients sometimes ask me about possible conflicts of interest.  For purposes of a lawsuit, a conflict of interest occurs when someone has a financial conflict of interest.  That "someone" is usually the lawyer for one side or the other.  For example, if I own partial interest in a company but then represent…

 The Texas legislature sent a bill to the governor for his signature that would allow employees to take guns to work.  The bill allows workers to keep any guns they are legally allowed to possess in their vehicles at work.  The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt, R-Lexington, said many companies do not understand the sporting…

 Facebook has become such a part of the daily lives for many of us that we post without much thought.  Perhaps, that is why one Guadalupe County (near San Antonio) prosecutor violated a court order.  Assistant District Attorney Larry Bloomquist posted an update on a manslaughter trial he was prosecuting.  Mr. Bloomquist had posted an…

 An Eastern District of Texas recently addressed the effect of the ADA amendments Act.  In Norton v. Assisted Living Concepts, Inc., an employee suffered from cancer.  He returned to work and was fired within a month of his return.  The cancer was in remission.  Under the old Americans with Disabilities Act, he would have to…

About a month ago, a lawyer in Washington DC represented a man charged with a felony. Apparently, the lawyer ran into some problems.  The judge berated him for being inexperienced and unprepared for the case.  A private investigator claimed that the lawyer told him to trick a witness into testifying that she did not see…

Job Accommodation Network, a government (DOL) sponsored website, is an excellent place to start assessing what accommodations an employee may need to perform his/her job.  The website breaks down the possible accommodations by each particular diagnosis.  It provides a separate web page for employers to review what their requirements may be regarding certain diagnoses.

Discrimination lawsuits, like many lawsuits, rely heavily on discovery.  Discovery is the process by which we seek the other sides’ evidence.  In employment cases, the discovery process takes on added importance because the employer has most of the key evidence.  The employer, for example, posses personnel records regarding other employee who were terminated for similar…