Articles Posted in Employment Law

Certain types of employee complaints to an employer qualify as “protected activity.” An employer that responds to a protected complaint by terminating, demoting, or otherwise taking an adverse employment action against the employee risks being sued for retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the Florida Civil Rights Act of…

While courts may allow employees to bring claims of “reverse discrimination” concerning sex, race, or religion, an employee may not bring a claim of “reverse” age discrimination under current interpretations of the Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”) or the Florida Civil Rights Act (“FCRA”). The different way that age is treated when contrasted…

Contracts that restrict or prohibit competition during or after the term of employment are enforceable, “so long as such contracts are reasonable in time, area, and line of business…” Florida Statute § 542.335. A non-compete provision that prohibits a doctor from seeing any patients from medical practice that formerly employed him/her, is not overbroad, provided…

The Florida Arbitration Code provides businesses with flexibility in resolving their conflicts through arbitration. Arbitration is an immensely popular method of conflict resolution for Florida business litigation and employment litigation. Arbitration can generally help resolve disputes more quickly than litigation. However, parties to arbitration sometimes need court intervention via “provisional remedies,” i.e., a court ruling…

Any employee claiming illegal sex discrimination must show that an employer took an adverse employment action, such as hiring, firing, promoting, or discipling an employee, and that action was motivated by the sex of the employee. Avoiding sex discrimination claims is complicated by the fact that the definition of “sex” as it is understood in…

Employers in litigation against their employees face the challenge of not only dealing with the claims made by those employees, but the threat of being left to pay the attorneys’ fees bill of their opponents. Employers can mitigate that risk, and sometimes even turn the tables and win their attorneys’ fees from their former employees,…

An aggrieved employee suing his or her employer for “sexual harassment” must present evidence that his workplace is such a hostile and abusive work environment because of his or her sex that it alters the conditions of his employment. An aggrieved employee does not make an actionable claim if he or she has suffered only…

Employers in Florida are free to use all lawful criteria in deciding which employees to promote within the business. It is well known that Florida and federal law prohibit employment discrimination based on various characteristics, such as race, age, national origin, sex, or religious affiliation. When considering employment discrimination lawsuits, Florida and federal courts have…

A plaintiff alleging intentional discrimination must present sufficient facts to permit a jury to rule in his or her favor. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1973) established a burden-shifting framework to test the sufficiency of the facts in plaintiff’s discrimination claim. Under McDonnell Douglas, the plaintiff bears the initial burden of establishing…

A party seeking a temporary injunction to enforce a non-compete agreement must establish four elements: (1) a likelihood of irreparable harm and the unavailability of an adequate remedy at law; (2) a substantial likelihood of success on the merits; (3) the threatened injury to the petitioner outweighs any possible harm to the respondent, and (4)…