Last month, a former physician at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center prevailed on state law claims of sex discrimination and retaliation, for which the jury awarded $13 million, while it found...
Bank of America Lawsuit Shows Why Whistleblower Practitioners Should Think Beyond Federal Protections
March 20, 2018
A California jury awarded a former Bank of America employee over $550,000 in February – and that was before it determined its punitive damages award. The verdict demonstrates that there may be additional routes of recovery...
Zarda v. Altitude Express: Another Federal Court Breakthrough on Sexual Orientation Discrimination
March 13, 2018
On Feb. 26, 2018, the Second Circuit issued an en banc opinion in Zarda v. Altitude Express, and joined the Seventh Circuit, the EEOC, and some lower federal courts in holding that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964...
The U.S. Appeals Court for the Sixth Circuit held today that R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act when it fired a funeral director after she told her boss that she planned to...
Not all employees who face bullying in the workplace have actionable sexual harassment claims against their employers. Screaming bosses, coworkers who intentionally undermine one another’s success, and supervisors who set...
A VA Doctor’s Suicide Results in New Whistleblower Protections
February 22, 2018
On October 26, 2017, a new law went into effect, aimed at ramping up protections for federal employees who report waste, fraud, or abuse in the federal government and ensuring accountability for supervisors who retaliate...
SEC Reports 3 of its Biggest Whistleblower Payouts and a Steady Increase in Tips in 2017
February 20, 2018
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of the Whistleblower has filed its Annual Report to Congress for FY2017, marking another banner year for the SEC Whistleblower Program. During FY2017, the SEC issued...
Congress has passed numerous whistleblower protection laws to shield company insiders and others who act in the public interest from retaliation as a means to encourage them to report and attempt to prevent illegal activity....
How the Bipartisan Budget Act Will Benefit Whistleblowers
February 13, 2018
On February 9, 2018, President Trump signed into law the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. Two provisions of the law that have received little coverage in the press provide a great boon for whistleblowers seeking awards through...
Is a Long-Term Leave of Absence a Reasonable Accommodation?
January 23, 2018
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) provides a comprehensive mandate for the elimination of discrimination, including employment discrimination, against individuals with disabilities. Disability discrimination...