Under the Equal Pay Act, all employers must pay equal wages to women and men in the same establishment for performing substantially equal work. The law covers jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility and are performed under similar working conditions. The law covers all forms of pay, including salary, overtime pay, bonuses, stock options, profit sharing and bonus plans, life insurance, vacation and holiday pay, cleaning or gasoline allowances, hotel accommodations, reimbursement for travel expenses and benefits.… Read More

The Supreme Court on May 21 handed down a ruling, Epic Systems Corporation v. Lewis, that protected employers whose employees had signed arbitration agreements from being sued by those same employees for employment related issues in a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit pitted two separate federal laws against each other: the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the 1925 Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”). The NLRA gives employees the right to self-organization and to “engage in concerted activities for the… Read More

Virginia has passed, effective July 1, 2018, a new Va. Code § 8.01-417 that has created much consternation, but little change. That statute was titled “An Act to amend and reenact § 8.01-417 of the Code of Virginia, relating to personal injury claim; disclosure of insurance policy limits. [S 535]” during its pendency, and is “Copies of written statements or transcriptions of verbal statements by injured person to be delivered to him; copies of subpoenaed documents to be provided to… Read More

In March of 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court handed down a much-anticipated ruling in Bailets v. Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, unanimously ruling that noneconomic damages like humiliation and mental anguish are recoverable for whistleblowers who are determined to have been harmed in violation of Pennsylvania’s whistleblower law. In Bailets, an employee with ten years of service for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, Ralph M. Bailets, was fired after he made several complaints of wrongdoing regarding the formation of contracts with contractors, as… Read More

It is the middle of the night, and you receive a phone call that one of your vehicles has been involved in an accident. With everything that starts racing through your mind, one of your first thoughts should be—I need to get a statement about what happened from my driver. And, while that seems simple enough, details of that statement may significantly impact whether it’s discoverable during litigation. The Circuit Court of Spotsylvania County took up this topic in an… Read More

Attendees at our firm’s seminars will have heard the term “spoliation,” referring to the destruction of evidence. The issue typically comes up in the context of documents or evidence that is transitory, such as data from a Truck’s ECM, or an outdoor accident scene. Essentially, a party warns another party by letter to preserve evidence. If the evidence is not preserved, a court may sanction the party failing to preserve evidence with either an “inference” or a “conclusive presumption” that… Read More

Employers are regularly reminded by insurance carriers and defense attorneys that they should gather detailed evidence surrounding the circumstances of an accident. Recent case law highlights the importance of even the most minute details. The Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission follows the “actual risk test.” The test, which is highly fact-specific and subjective, is outlined as follows: An injury arises out of the employment, when there is apparent to the rational mind upon consideration of all the circumstances, a causal connection… Read More

As those familiar with the trucking industry know all too well, it has become common practice for plaintiffs to seek damages against brokers in the event of trucking accidents. Their purpose in doing so is to find the entity with the deepest pockets as well as to add more defendants and causes of action to a lawsuit than there otherwise would be, improving the odds of a recovery. Fortunately for brokers, a recent U.S. District Court decision may limit plaintiffs’… Read More