The death penalty sanction is very rare in litigation, but it does happen. In Hornady v. Outokumpu Stainless U.S., No. 18-00317-JB-N (S.D. Ala. 11/18/2021), the court specifically found the defendant had obstructed discovery for years. The lawsuit concerned a Fair Labor Standards Act collective action – a class action lawsuit. As part of every
The battle over whether individual arbitration agreements can prevent class actions was settled with the decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis, 138 S.Ct. 1612 (2018). That decision found that workers who signed individual arbitration agreements with his/her employer could not later file suit as a class or collective action. Employers viewed this decision favorably.
Donald Trump is involved in many lawsuits. He lost one of them. Mr. Trump purchased a golf course in 2012 ago for $5 million. That was a good price, but part of the deal was that he had to accept the liabilities then pending. Some 65 members were trying to withdraw from their membership. There
It was a landmark ruling a year ago when the US Supreme Court reversed class certification in Wal–Mart v. Dukes. See Workplace Prof. If allowed to stand, that class action would have been the largest ever. But, the US Supreme Court reversed. Now, Wal-Mart got what it wanted, perhaps. Some 2,000
The EEOC has been hit with another sanction of attorney’s fees. A court assessed $2.6 million in attorney’s fees against the EEOC due to a lawsuit they filed which they lost. See Workplace Prof blog post. The EEOC had sought class action status in EEOC v. Cintas and lost. Because the EEOC did not
Employment class actions have been dealt a blow by the recent decision in Dukes v. Wal-Mart. You can look at the decision here. The decision, as I understand it, finds a lack of "commonality" among the female plaintiffs because there is no one company policy that caused their discrimination. The "policy" the plaintiffs were
The very large Wal-Mart class action lawsuit is going to the US Supreme Court for review this week. See CBS news report. The class involves 500,000 to 1.6 million potential plaintiffs. The suit alleges discrimination against women. The suit was initially filed ten years ago in California. It was most recently the subject of
One would think that law firms would follow the law. Well, sometimes, its is more the opposite. A medium sized Ohio law firm is sued for wage violations in its office. The firm pays salary to secretaries and never pays overtime. Lazzaro Law Firm in Cleveland represents some 40 secretaries in a class action law