By: Matthew Gagnon, Steve Shardonofsky, Jim Swartz, and Coby Turner
The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned a wave of employment litigation directly and indirectly based on COVID-19-related health risks and employers’ response to the crisis. Seyfarth has been tracking lawsuits filed in state and federal courts across the country, and will be reporting
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Jennifer A. Riley
Seyfarth Synopsis: While many businesses hoped that the U.S. Supreme Court would blow up the ban on autodialed calls in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), on July 6, 2020, the nation’s highest court issued its long-anticipated decision in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants,
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Jennifer A. Riley
Seyfarth Synopsis: As employers embark on reopening their businesses and implementing return to work plans, they face a potential wave of workplace class action litigation. Such lawsuits have begun to roll in and courts have started to weave a patch-work quilt of responses. Early results show
By Gerald L. Maatman and Jennifer A. Riley
Seyfarth Synopsis: As businesses chart their paths through the difficulties of reopening their operations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, another risk looms – the danger of being the target of a class action lawsuit. That trend is in its formative stage already, and members of
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Alex S. Oxyer, and Paul M. Waldera
Seyfarth Synopsis: In McKenzie Law Firm, P.A., et al. v. Ruby Receptionists, Inc., 18-CV-1921, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94299 (D. Or. May 29, 2020), the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon lessened the standard for plaintiffs to obtain an
Seyfarth Synopsis: In its recent review of Seyfarth’s 2020 Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report, EPLiC called it the “must have” resource that corporate counsel “cannot afford to be without it…”
We are humbled and honored by the recent review of our 2020 Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report by Employment Practices Liability Consultant Magazine
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Jennifer A. Riley
Seyfarth Synopsis: As employers begin laying the groundwork for reopening and returning their businesses to “normal,” a large threat of a different form looms on the horizon. The Plaintiffs’ bar is poised for – and has been discussing preparation of – class actions over denied
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Alex S. Oxyer, and Paul M. Waldera
Seyfarth Synopsis: The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin recently cast doubt on employers’ ability to strike the class allegations in a complaint early in litigation. In Gilbert, et al. v. Lands’ End, Inc., No. 19-CV-1066, 2020 WL
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Alex W. Karasik
Seyfarth Synopsis: In a class action lawsuit alleging multiple fraud claims, a federal court in Illinois granted the plaintiff’s motion to sanction the defendants for interfering with the class notice process by encouraging class members to opt-out, and sanctioned their attorney for communicating directly with
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Alex S. Oxyer
Seyfarth Synopsis: In Johnson v. Airbus Defense & Space Inc., No. 5:17-CV-2150, 2020 WL 1675776 (N.D. Ala. Apr. 6, 2020), the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama recently granted an employer’s motion for summary judgment on claims brought by plaintiffs alleging they were