Arbitration of legal disputes has become so common that now it has even invaded the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). Navy Lt. Kevin Ziober filed suit against his former employer after it fired him. BLB Resources, Inc. fired him on his last day of work before just before he deployed
In federal court, sanctions are a real possibility. A state court can also award sanctions if a lawsuit is found to be frivolous. But, state court judges are more reticent about awarding sanctions than federal judges. In federal court, sanctions rarely occur, but they do occur. The law firm representing the plaintiffs in Elfoulki v.
Judge Walter Smith, a Federal judge in Waco, was reprimanded by the Fifth Circuit last year for unwanted sexual advances on one of his employees back in 1998. I wrote about that reprimand here. Judge Smith has now retired. Apparently, the investigation into whether he made advances on other women over the years will
So, just a few days after he made racial comments, Louis Agnese, President of UIW, has been fired. The Board of Trustees said it would not condone those sorts of comments. And, now it has voted to remove him as President. See San Antonio Express News report. The man who raised University of the Incarnate
So, now, Fox News itself has been sued for sexual harassment. Former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros has sued her former employer, saying Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly harassed her. She describes Fox News as a sex-fueled, Playboy mansion like place to work. In her suit, Ms. Tantaros claims she was in Mr. Ailes’ office.
Retired GEN John Allen spoke at the Democratic National Convention last week. He has since explained that he felt he had to speak up because Donald Trump advocates that the military violate the recognized rules of war. See ABC news report. Yes, there are what we call “rules of war.” One of those rules
Unlike Texas, some states still have a viable worker’s compensation system that produces valuable benefits for workers. One such state is California. So, as we might expect, the worker’s compensation docket is much more competitive than here in Texas. One defense firm sought an extra edge. It allegedly hacked into online stored legal files for
Yes, some employers will take advantage of employees. My friend, Chris McKinney, discusses one such case of a worker for Buc-ees. You know the place with the friendly, smiling beaver? Kelly Rieves was hired by Buc-ees as an assistant store manger in Cypress, Texas. They had her sign a contract which included a clause for
There are a lot of myths out there about employment law. From time to time, I talk about a few of those myths.
At will
“At will” employment means an employee can be fired for anything.” Texas is an at-will state. An employee can indeed be fired for a lot of things, but not for
A couple of years ago, a client told me she was happy with how discovery was going in her case. We had, she assured me, “extremely strong evidence.” My initial reaction was what, what are you drinking?? It seems many folks new to the legal system expect much more. They expect a jury that listens