According to a recent ruling in a case of first impression arising out of the Norfolk Division of the Eastern District of Virginia, a defendant who is a citizen of the forum state cannot remove a diversity case to federal court, even if the defendant has not yet been served with formal process, because to hold otherwise would be “absurd.” In Campbell v. Hampton Bankshares, Inc., et al., two Virginia banks were sued by their

A female employee’s claim of retaliatory termination under Title VII was tossed out on a summary judgment motion because the supervisor who received the employee’s discrimination complaint was not the same person who was principally responsible for making the termination decision.  The Federal Court’s decision was later affirmed by the Fourth Circuit in Balas v. Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. The case involved a claim by a former employee of Northrop Grumman Corporation (Huntington Ingalls Industries,

Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit clarified its position on whether or not district courts may consider extrinsic evidence in ERISA cases.  In Helton v. AT&T, Inc., et al. (No. 11-2153, March 6, 2013), the Fourth Circuit confirmed that courts may consider evidence outside the administrative record, when necessary and appropriate, in order to determine whether a plan administrator abused its discretion. Cases brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a new poster describing employee rights under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that covered employers must post by March 8, 2013.  Additionally, in February of this year, the DOL issued updated model forms that eligible employers must now use when addressing employee requests for FMLA leave.  These forms do not substantively alter past FMLA forms, and will remain in effect through February 28, 2015. The FMLA

When a contract provided for the breaching party to pay the non-breaching party’s “legal costs,” the Fourth Circuit determined that attorneys’ fees were not included within this term.  The February 19, 2013 Fourth Circuit decision which vacates the District Court’s calculation of “legal costs” is Traxys North America v. Concept Mining Incorporated. The dispute involved a coal contract which stated that the breaching party would be obligated to pay “legal costs incurred by [the non-breaching]