The Paley Rothman Blog
Paley Rothman shares this library of resources with clients and friends of the firm to help them stay ahead of legal and business developments and trends. Here, you will find helpful tips and tools written by our attorneys. The information in the blogs and articles is not a substitute for legal advice and should not be relied on as such. Should you have any questions or want legal advice, please contact the attorney who wrote the blog or article.
March 26, 2013
By
Jessica Summers on March 26, 2013
For the many companies that utilize arbitration clauses in their independent contractor agreements or employment agreements, a recent decision from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia serves as an important reminder of the care that must be taken in crafting these provisions. Otherwise, what was meant to provide a cost-savings mechanism for dispute resolution may end up actually increasing litigation expenses significantly. As this case demonstrates, the litigants spent substantial time (and no doubt expense) litigating the enforceability of the arbitration provision even before getting to the merits of the case.
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March 20, 2013
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) took a rare action on March 12, 2013, filing suit against Toys “R” Us under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for failure to provide a reasonable accommodation to, and failure to hire, a profoundly deaf job applicant. The statistics highlight how rare this suit really is: In 2012, the EEOC received 99,412 charges alleging some form of employment discrimination. Of those 99,412 charges, the EEOC brought merit suits in just 122 cases. Only 45 involved ADA claims.
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February 6, 2013
By
Jessica Summers on February 6, 2013
On Feb. 5, 2013, marking the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Department of Labor issued a long awaited final rule (available here) expanding FMLA protections for military members and their families and airline personnel. The new rule implements the expansion of the FMLA approved by Congress in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010 and Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act of 2009 (AFCTCA).
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February 1, 2013
By
Jessica Summers on February 1, 2013
In January, the Senate of Virginia passed a bill to establish an Employee Misclassification Task Force (see SB879 available here). The task force will be comprised of members of various government agencies and will be responsible for, among other things, developing and recommending a clear definition of “employee,” educating workers and employers about misclassification and how to report misclassification, and considering enforcement mechanisms.
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January 25, 2013
In a groundbreaking decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that President Obama’s three “recess” appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on January 4, 2012 were unconstitutional. This decision will have a dramatic practical impact on the field of labor law, which increasingly affects non-union employers, because it leaves the NLRB without a quorum and casts doubt on every one of its actions since January 4, 2012.
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