Uncategorized

Does a plaintiff alleging a claim of discriminatory discipline in violation of Title VII need to allege and prove the existence of an adverse employment action?  This is a recurring question within the Fourth Circuit that the district courts and court of appeals have failed to resolve in a definitive manner.  Indeed, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has been inconsistent as to whether an adverse employment action is an essential element of a Title…

When an Employee Complains about Wages and Compensation to the Employer, the Employer Cannot Retaliate — Even if the Employee Does Not File a Formal Complaint in a Court or Before an Administrative Agency The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ new ruling in Jafari v. The Old Dominion Transit Management Company, a/k/a The Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC), settled confusion arising from a prior unpublished decision about whether an employee’s complaint to supervisors within his company

On November 28, 2011, a Maryland corporation called Systems Assessment and Research, Inc. (“SAR”) learned a (hard) valuable lesson about the consequences of over-drafting — or having typos in — contract provisions.  Perricci v. Systems Assessment and Research, Inc., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 135985, involved an offer letter prepared by SAR to its potential employee.  The letter stated: “You may not terminate your employment with SAR Corp during your first year, or thereafter on less than

Does the failure to include instances of “nonverbal harassment” in an EEOC charge bar a plaintiff from asserting such harassment as a basis for a Title VII lawsuit?  So long as the nonverbal conduct is reasonably related to the claims actually set forth in the EEOC charge, the answer is probably “no.”  The difficulty, of course, is in determining whether the new allegations in the civil action are reasonably related to the claims contained in

The subject of workplace defamation is a hot topic in legal circles these days.  In a pair of recent decisions, local federal courts have helped define when negative statements about employees can create legal liability for employers.  The answer varies depending on whether an employer has investigated alleged employee misconduct, and to whom the statements are made. In the first case, Bates v. Strawbridge Studios, a Virginia federal court allowed two former employees to pursue a