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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

In an unpublished decision last week, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld summary judgment dismissing a plaintiff’s claims for failure to accommodate, discriminatory termination and retaliatory termination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). Emergency room nurse Vivienne Wulff alleged that her employer Sentara Healthcare, Inc. violated the ADA  when it took her off the active work schedule due to a form she had submitted regarding her ability to work that listed a total