Articles Posted in Employment Law

Former employees who quit their jobs will sometimes sue their former employers for retaliation based on the theory that they were “constructively” terminated. Under federal employment law, a “constructive” termination occurs when an employee’s resignation is caused by involuntary working conditions, duress, or an employer’s misrepresentation. However, the threshold of conduct which qualifies as a…

Discovery is a powerful tool in litigation which can be used to acquire information necessary to resolve the case. However, the discovery process is susceptible to abuse. Parties can request material that is not necessary, simply to increase the costs for their adversary or expose private or embarrassing information. Whether financial discovery should be ordered…

Employees sometimes raid their employer’s trade secrets prior to quitting so that they may have an advantage starting up their own business or in their employment with a competitor. An aggrieved employer may sue under the Florida Uniform Trade Secrets Act (FUTSA) to recover those trade secrets and for any damages arising from the theft…

Arbitration is a method of dispute resolution which can provide a speedy and less costly resolution to disputes. Arbitration is often preferred by the party who is a defendant on the belief that arbitration is better strategically. The speedier resolution of arbitration does not come without a cost. A party to an arbitration aggrieved by…

Sometimes, an employment relationship can become acrimonious. A disgruntled employee is more likely to complain and more likely to fail to perform work. As a result, some terminated employees try to assert that the loss of their employment was not their performance or attitude but instead because of unlawful retaliation. In lawsuits accusing the employer…

The Florida Civil Rights Act (FCRA) requires that an employee-plaintiff comply with an administrative procedure with the Florida Commission of Human Relations (FCHR) prior to filing suit. The purpose of this requirement is to reduce the number of discrimination lawsuits by filtering clearly meritless claims and attempting to resolve disputes before a civil lawsuit may…

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (Coronavirus Response Act) was enacted to allow employees to take paid leave in certain qualifying conditions in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Generally, an employee may take 2 weeks of medical leave and be paid 100% of his or her salary when he or she is unable to work…

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (CARES Act) requires that employers permit their employees to have paid leave in certain circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the FFCRA is mandatory for qualifying businesses, the burden of this law is offset because employers receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for the wages paid pursuant to the…

The “opposition clause” of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevents covered employers from retaliating against employees because they oppose a practice which is unlawful under the Act. Accordingly, an employer can be liable for terminating an employee for complaining about allegedly discriminatory conduct. A recent en banc case with the United…

Florida and Maryland’s non-compete laws are protective of business interests in customer relationships and goodwill. Due to the advent of remote working capabilities, there are often cases when the non-compete laws of more than one state may be implicated. For example, a Florida employee may work in Florida for a company based in Maryland, and…