Discovery Strategies in Wage and Hour Class and Collective Actions Before and After Certification of Putative Class

February 15th, 2023|Categories: CLE OnDemand, Emerging Issues Webinars, Emerging Litigation & Risk, Featured On-Demand, HB Tort Notes, Mass Torts, New Webinars, Tort Webinars|Tags: , , , , |

Discovery Strategies in Wage and Hour Class and Collective Actions Before and After Certification of Putative Class Strategically Limiting Discovery, Resolving Discovery Disputes Wage and hour class and collective actions are complex and discovery intensive. Discovery requests are often burdensome, seeking information concerning a broad swath of workers. This causes the discovery process to sometimes linger for years and creates a significant expense for employers.In recent years, courts have emphasized that parties must rein in extensive and expensive discovery requests. Employment litigators are increasingly raising proportionality arguments as a basis for objecting to opposing counsel's discovery requests. Drafters are responding by tailoring requests to anticipate such challenges. Drafting discovery requests that are likely to withstand burden and proportionality challenges and objections to broad discovery requests is critical for litigators representing employers in wage and hour class and collective actions. Employment litigators must develop and implement effective discovery strategies both before and, as applicable, after certification of the putative class. These strategies often must anticipate the possibility of a future summary judgment motion, further certification practice, and trial on the merits. Listen as our authoritative panel of employment law attorneys explains effective strategies for pursuing or objecting to discovery requests in wage and hour collective and class actions and resolving discovery disputes that arise during litigation. Questions Addressed: What are the most common discovery [...]

Employers Be WARNed: Workforce Reduction Rules Meet New Workplace Definitions as Employees Go Remote by Juan Enjamio and Steven DiBeneditto

September 6th, 2022|Categories: Emerging Litigation & Risk, Employment, Journal, New Featured Post for Home Page, News|Tags: , , , , |

The Authors: Juan C. Enjamio (jenjamio@huntonak.com) is managing parter of the Miami office of Hunton Andrews Kurth where he dedicates his practice to complex domestic and international employment law matters. Steven J. DiBeneditto Jr. (sdibeneditto@huntonak.com) is a Washington, DC-based associate in the firm’s employment and labor group. Interviews with leading attorneys and other subject matter experts on new twists in the law and how the law is responding to new twists in the world. Employers Be WARNed Workforce Reduction Rules Meet New Workplace Definitions as Employees Go Remote "Numerous courts have opined that a “home base” is a place in which the employee has some sort of physical connection. But this connection must be more than a “notional” base, whereby the employee has a menial relationship." Introduction A common sentiment during the Covid-19 pandemic was that a different society would emerge from its ashes. While overstated in many cases, one segment of society that appears to have changed for good is the white collar workplace. Indeed, after enjoying the flexibility of working from home for more than 2 years, many white collar workers are demanding that a remote work option remain a permanent fixture at their place of employment. And with seemingly no negotiating leverage due to worker shortages across the [...]

The “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021” Finally Levels the Playing Field by Kathryn Hatfield

June 22nd, 2022|Categories: Emerging Litigation & Risk, Employment, HB Tort Notes, Journal, Mass Torts, New Featured Post for Home Page, News|Tags: , , , , |

The Author Kathryn V. Hatfield (khatfield@hatfieldschwartzlaw.com) is a partner in the women-owned law firm of Hatfield Schwartz Law Group LLC where she focuses on advising and representing management in labor and employment law matters. Kathryn is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of Emerging Issues in Litigation. Interviews with leading attorneys and other subject matter experts on new twists in the law and how the law is responding to new twists in the world. The “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021” Finally Levels the Playing Field "While arbitration offers privacy and confidentiality, it is for exactly these reasons that the #MeToo movement developed. Moreover, other than perhaps the differences in the speed of the two processes, the advantages of arbitration can be flipped on their head and become disadvantages." Abstract: The Equal Employment Opportunity Center alone receives on average approximately 7,000 sexual harassment claims a year, a figure that does not include claims filed with state and local agencies. The cost of resolving these claims logged by the EEOC averages $63 million a year based on the past four years. On average, there are nearly 464,000 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault in the United States each [...]

Antiracism and Antitrust with Eric Cramer

June 20th, 2022|Categories: Class Actions, ELP, Emerging Litigation & Risk, Employment, News|Tags: , , , , |

Our Guest Eric Cramer is Chairman of the Firm and Co-Chair of the Firm’s antitrust department. He has a national practice in the field of complex litigation, primarily in the area of antitrust class actions. He is currently co-lead counsel in multiple significant antitrust class actions across the country in a variety of industries and is responsible for winning numerous significant settlements for his clients totaling well over $3 billion. Mr. Cramer is also a frequent speaker at antitrust and litigation related conferences and a leader of multiple non-profit advocacy groups. He was the only Plaintiffs’ lawyer selected to serve on the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Section Transition Report Task Force delivered to the incoming Obama Administration in 2012. Antiracism and Antitrust with Eric Cramer Among the legal and regulatory avenues one might follow to mitigate the impact of racism, most of us would look to various manifestations of discrimination law in  employment, lending, real estate, education, healthcare, voting rights, and other categories. When presented in those contexts, the anti-racism objectives are clear.  There are several federal laws and many state laws that prohibit anticompetitive behavior.  At the top of the heap is the Sherman Antirust Act of 1890, which outlaws illegal monopolies and anticompetitive tactics, conspiracies to restrain trade, cartels and syndicates.  But [...]

Episode Three: Karla Gilbride Tells Her Story Behind the Unanimous Pro-Employee Win at the Supreme Court

June 14th, 2022|Categories: Complex Business Litigation, Employment, HB Tort Notes, Mass Torts, News|Tags: , , , , |

DietaFit: Lose weight and stay fit - Page 6 | Diet, Fitness and Wellbeing | Page 6 dianabol pills gina fitness nude hentai clips Karla Gilbride Tells Her Story Behind the Unanimous Pro-Employee Win at the Supreme Court The Federal Arbitration Act is clear, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan wrote: “[C]ourts are not to create arbitration-specific procedural rules …. Or put conversely, it is a bar on using custom-made rules, to tilt the playing field in favor of (or against) arbitration.” With the support of all eight of her colleagues, Justice Kagan’s opinion in Morgan v. Sundance  put an end to the long-running tilt of justice toward employers in the form of  judge-made rules that favor arbitration. This important holding clears the way for more workers, consumers, and other individuals harmed by corporate misconduct to pursue their rights in open court. Karla Gilbride, Senior Attorney at Public Justice, argued the case to the high court on behalf of the plaintiff, Robyn Morgan, an hourly employee at a Taco Bell franchise owned by Sundance, Inc.  It was not only Gilbride’s first Supreme Court argument, but she was the first blind attorney to do so in the court’s history. Listen to Public Justice’s Ellen Noble — who assisted in the case — as she interviews Gilbride about her remarkable experience. This is a must [...]

Workplace Investigations: Proactive Assessments Mitigate the Risk of Costly Litigation in a Newly Remote Environment

April 28th, 2022|Categories: Corporate Compliance, Employment, HB Tort Notes, Journal, Mass Torts, New Featured Post for Home Page, News|Tags: , , , , |

The Author Stefani C Schwartz is Senior Managing Partner at the Hatfield Schwartz Law Group LLC. She has devoted her career to representing and advising employers in the complete spectrum of employment law, including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination. Stefani is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Emerging Issues in Litigation. Interviews with leading attorneys and other subject matter experts on new twists in the law and how the law is responding to new twists in the world. Workplace Investigations:  Proactive Assessments Mitigate the Risk of Costly Litigation in a Newly Remote Environment "Investigations are a straightforward, efficient, and effective way to combat the risk of litigation because they reflect the best aspects of the employer–employee relationship: understanding, respect, communication, and shared goals." Abstract: “Bullying, discrimination, sexual harassment and other forms of workplace misconduct can create a crisis for any company—and trying to ignore or cover it up will make a bad situation worse.” That’s the warning from a December 2021 article for Forbes, which goes on to say that in addition the damage to an employer’s reputation, a study by workplace misconduct reporting service Vault Platform found that workplace misconduct cost U.S. businesses more than $20 billion in 2021. In this article, the [...]

Where’s Your Head? Managing the Mind in Mediation with Jeff Trueman

January 13th, 2022|Categories: Class Actions, Complex Business Litigation, ELP, Emerging Litigation & Risk, News|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Where's Your Head? Managing the Mind in Mediation with Jeff Trueman Joining me to discuss this is  Jeff Trueman, an experienced, full-time mediator and arbitrator. Jeff helps parties resolve a wide variety of litigated and pre-suit disputes and interpersonal problems concerning catastrophic injuries, professional malpractice, wrongful death, employment, family business dissolution, real property, estate, and domestic relations. He is a panel mediator for the American Arbitration Association; a  panel arbitrator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority; a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators; a recipient of the Paul A. Dorf Alternative Dispute Resolution Memorial Award by the Bar Association of Baltimore City; and will soon hold an LLM from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at the prestigious Pepperdine School of Law.  Finally, did I really suggest that having a mediator with a bad hip could help achieve a faster resolution? Did I really give a review of the HBO original movie Oslo, which I consider a must-see for anyone interested in conflict resolution? Did I really compare married couples during Covid-19 lockdowns to angry bees in a jar? Listen and find out. Spoiler alert: Yes. Yes I did.  This podcast is the audio companion to the Journal on Emerging Issues in Litigation, a collaborative project between HB Litigation Conferences and the Fastcase legal research family, which includes Full Court Press, Law Street Media, and Docket Alarm. The [...]

7th Circuit: Is Each Transmission of Biometric Data a BIPA Violation? | By Jennifer M. Oliver | MoginRubin LLP

January 13th, 2022|Categories: Complex Business Litigation, Emerging Litigation & Risk, Employment, HB Risk Notes, New Featured Post for Home Page, News|Tags: , , , , |

7th Circuit: Is Each Transmission of Biometric Data a BIPA Violation? By Jennifer M. Oliver The outcome of this case will have a dramatic impact on statutory damages. The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has certified a question to the Illinois Supreme Court over the accrual of claims under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The question, posed by the court in Cothron v. White Castle Systems, Inc., reads: “Do section 15(b) and 15(d) claims accrue each time a private entity scans a person’s biometric identifier and each time a private entity transmits such a scan to a third party, respectively, or only upon the first scan and first transmission?” The case was brought by an employee of the White Castle hamburger chain, which requires fingerprint scans for employees to access computer systems. The plaintiff charged that sharing her fingerprints with a third party vendor violated the law. Cothron v. White Castle Sys., No. 20-3202, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 37593 (7th Cir. Dec. 20, 2021). An accrual rule based on each collection, opponents to such a finding argue, would pose potentially existential damages — especially in the class action context — since BIPA provides for statutory damages of $1,000 or $5,000 per violation. Parties disagree on whether BIPA damages are mandatory or discretionary, however. Should [...]

Labor Law in 2021 with Kathryn Hatfield

July 6th, 2021|Categories: Complex Business Litigation, ELP, Employment, HB Risk Notes, News|Tags: , , , , |

Labor Law in 2021 with Kathryn Hatfield Participation in labor unions is less than half of what it was 40 years ago. It has seen an uptick in the service sector, but a sharp decline in manufacturing. According to economist Heidi Shierholz decline in union rolls is partly responsible for today's yawning income inequality gap. Recently we've seen the formation of a modest union at Google and a movement among Amazon workers. We've also seen how the pandemic has shone a bright light on the fragility of our nation's workforce struggling to survive at the bottom rungs of the pay scale. Joining me to speak about these issues is Kathryn Van Deusen Hatfield, a senior managing partner at Hatfield Schwartz Law Group in New Jersey.  Kathy represents private and public sector employers in all aspects of labor and employment law, with expertise in litigating state and federal cases on behalf of employers involving Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, and providing legal opinions and advice on personnel, employment and labor issues.  Kathy shares her insights on recent developments in the labor movement, some of the causes of its decline, how unions get a bad rap, and how, even though she represents management, she believes unions can be a good thing [...]

Kathryn Hatfield on Labor Law in 2021

April 7th, 2021|Categories: Corporate Compliance, Employment, News|Tags: , , , , |

Kathryn Hatfield on Labor Law in 2021 Participation in labor unions is less than half of what it was 40 years ago. It has seen an uptick in the service sector, but a sharp decline in manufacturing. According to Heidi Shierholz -- former chief economist at the Department of Labor, now senior economist and policy director at the Economic Policy Institute -- decline in union rolls is partly responsible for today's yawning income inequality gap. Recently we've seen the formation of a modest union at Google and a movement among Amazon workers. We've also seen how the pandemic has shone a bright light on the fragility of our nation's workforce struggling to survive at the bottom rungs of the pay scale. Joining me to speak about these issues is Kathryn Van Deusen Hatfield, a senior managing partner at Hatfield Schwartz Law Group in New Jersey.  Kathy represents private and public sector employers in all aspects of labor and employment law, with expertise in litigating state and federal cases on behalf of employers involving Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, and providing legal opinions and advice on personnel, employment and labor issues.  Kathy shares her insights on recent developments in the labor movement, some of the causes of its decline, how unions get a bad rap, [...]

Employment Law in the COVID-19 Era with Stefani Schwartz

January 22nd, 2021|Categories: Complex Business Litigation, ELP, Employment, HB Risk Notes, News|Tags: , , , , |

Employment Law in the COVID-19 Era with Stefani Schwartz Joining me to discuss this important subject is Stefani Schwartz, co-founder of the woman-owned employment-and-labor boutique Hatfield Schwartz in New Jersey. Stefani has devoted her legal career to representing employers in all aspects of employment law, including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination matters. Stefani will be featured in the next issue of the Journal on Emerging Issues in Litigation, a collaborative project between HB and the Fastcase legal research family, which includes Full Court Press, Law Street Media, Docket Alarm and, most recently, Judicata. If you have comments or wish to participate in one our projects, or want to tell me how awesome Stefani is, drop me a note at Editor@LitigationConferences.com. We hope you enjoy the interview, and a guest appearance by Benny, her Portuguese Water Dog, you know, because she's working from home. Stefani also shares one retail customer's quick fix for forgetting her face mask. More of us are working from home and, given it often has advantages, it's an arrangement that is likely to continue for many of us.  This raised the general question: Is your home officially "the office," with all the attendant rules and norms? What new risks do employers face? What new ways can employees find themselves in trouble? We're also getting vaccinated. But many are not. Can companies [...]

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