Pres. Trump brought some unusual experience to the office of the President of the United States. He filed over 3,500 lawsuits during his career in business. That is an astounding number. Periodically, I look for prior lawsuits regarding different organizations. I am sure I have never seen more than ten lawsuits for any one organization,
In Willis v. CLECO Corp., No. 13-30217, (5th Cir. 4/8/14), the Fifth Circuit panel reverses summary judgment regarding a disciplinary write-up, but affirms summary judgment regarding the termination of an African-American worker. Gregory Willis’ lawyer did not do him any favors in failing to point to specific pages from Mr. Willis’ deposition. Those pages
One of the unique aspects of employment law is that many persons enter into the judicial system representing themselves. An old saying holds that a lawyer who would represent himself has a fool for a client. That is, someone who tries to represent himself will make many mistakes, because that person is too emotionally involved
Tom Brown, confined to a wheel chair, formerly taught sociology at Northeast Lakeview College. He sued ACCD and settled his case for $95,000. Mr. Brown alleged that the district required him to teach in a classroom that was not accessible to his wheel chair and the school would not provide him help to move a
In employment cases, it is very difficult to not take things personally. When a person works for a company for 20 years and then gets fired because s/he comes down with some illness or because a new boss does not like minorities, then it does get personal. I know. But, once the lawsuit is filed
Ok, I have been tempted once or twice to file suit when someone at the store gets my order wrong, or they make me wait too long. i might have even joked about doing so once or twice. But, I have never seriously considered suing over something trivial. I mean, let’s be real.
But
My colleague and friend, Mike Maslanka, at Work Matters, pens a nice post about questions to pose to the employee plaintiff. See post. Mike’s post discusses good questions to ask the plaintiff. Mike generally represents employers. These questions would usually come during the deposition or the trial. His point is that the better questions
I have talked about this before. Reasonable settlement offers lead to reasonable, or halfway reasonable responses. When you are in the midst of a lawsuit, both sides have their "dander up." It is hard to be reasonable. But, it is just when it is hardest that it is most critical to appear reasonable. Pursuing
Most employees who come see me have thought twice, three times, even 20 times before they decide to file a complaint, or worse, file suit against the employer. In his blog, Michael Maslanka cautions employers to think twice before going into "fight" mode when an employee files an EEOC charge or even a lawsuit.
A lawyer friend had a client once who insisted on asking for $1.5 million to settle a discrimination case. The client did not make anywhere close to a six figure salary. He had lost very little income income. My friend the lawyer, tried and tried to describe to him the reality of low damage cases