Sometimes, the best advocacy is the least advocacy. Subtle can persuade better than histrionics. Read Mike Maslanka’s post about the president‘s speech last week. When the President was accused of lying, he did not over-react. He under-reacted. His subtle reaction said more than histrionics ever could. Mike then relates a similar experience from one
General
“Fight Club” Results in Prison Time
By Thomas J. Crane on
Posted in General
A former Corpus Christi State School employee was convicted in the "fight club" trials. D’angelo Riley was sentenced to 4 years in prison and 8 years probation for arranging some of the fights. One report said he was one of the ring leaders. He was the second state school employee to receive prison time…
What You Say Online can get You in Court
By Thomas J. Crane on
Posted in General
What you say online can come back and get you in court. See a list of such cases from IMS.
Forcing Employee to Provide Login Info can Violate Statute
By Thomas J. Crane on
Posted in General
If an employer accesses an employee’s social networking site without permission, or worse, accesses the site under threat of termination, then the employer may be liable for a claim of invasion of privacy and violation of the federal Stored Communication Act. Such was the result in a federal lawsuit in New Jersey. Delaware Employment…
Workplace Bullying Linked to Insomnia
By Thomas J. Crane on
Posted in General
Workplace bullying leads to insomnia, even for those co-workers who merely observe the harassment. In a study conducted of middle aged persons in France, men and women who suffered some harassment at work were twice as likely to suffer sleeping problems. For the study, they defined bullying as hostile actions designed to offend or oppress…
An Employer can Fire an Employee for the Wrong Reason
By Thomas J. Crane on
Posted in General
I used to get referrals from the San Antonio Bar Association. These referrals included many clients who had never spoken to a lawyer anywhere. Many of them would call complaining basically about unfair treatment. I still get calls like that, sometimes. They might say, "my employer fired me because they claim I did not call…
An Employer Needs to Document Problems
By Thomas J. Crane on
Posted in Discrimination, General
If you have a problem employee, it is important to document those problems. Written counseling serves many purposes. Michael Fox discusses a case in which the employer did not document those problems and lost a claim for discrimination because of that failure. Of course, he assumes the alleged work problems were genuine. Maybe they were…
Soldier Gets Life for Killing Iraqi Civilians
By Thomas J. Crane on
Posted in General
A veteran of the Iraq war gets life for killing unarmed civilians in Iraq. Reports the CBS news website. I spoke about this sometime back. It is a heinous crime. But, I have noticed that many of the line troops, the ones conducting "kinetic operations," never work with the "nice" Iraqis, the…
Local Man Killed in Afghanistan
By Thomas J. Crane on
Posted in General
A recent Judson High School graduate, LCPL Chris Baltazar was recently killed in Afghanistan. Reports the San Antonio Express-News. The third San Antonian killed in recent weeks.
DOJ Turning Back to its Previous Course
By Thomas J. Crane on
Posted in General
Eric Holder, the US Attorney General, is pushing the Dept. of Justice back to enforcing higher impact civil rights. So says the New York Times. The DOJ will focus more on high impact litigation, instead of the former administration’s preference for individual cases. DOJ can prosecute employment discrimination cases against state or local governments.