Category Archives: Fourth Circuit

Back from the USSR: FMLA Retaliation, 4th Circuit Decision in Dotson v Pfizer

Retal­i­a­tion law is one of the most devel­op­ing (and dan­ger­ous) areas of employ­ment law. I recently spoke at the West Vir­ginia Employ­ment Lawyers Association’s annual con­fer­ence on retal­i­a­tion law, and I wanted to go back and dis­cuss an impor­tant Fourth … Con­tinue read­ing

Posted in Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Fourth Circuit, Interest, Liquidated damages, Result for Employee | Leave a comment

Fourth Circuit rules that pension contribution rules may be age biased

The Fourth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals, in an unpub­lished opin­ion, addressed whether an employer’s pen­sion con­tri­bu­tion rules may con­sti­tute age dis­crim­i­na­tion under the Age Dis­crim­i­na­tion in Employ­ment Act of 1967, in Equal Employ­ment Oppor­tu­nity Com­mis­sion v. Bal­ti­more County, –F.3d. — … Con­tinue read­ing

Posted in Age Discrimination, Federal Cases (but not US Supreme Court), Fourth Circuit, Pension issues, Summary Judgment | Leave a comment

Can you be sexually harassed behind your back?

It might be obvi­ous, but it seems a bit dif­fi­cult to win on a claim for sex­ual harass­ment where all of the harass­ment occurs behind your back (and by “behind your back”, I mean sit­u­a­tions where the harass­ing behav­ior occurs … Con­tinue read­ing

Posted in Federal Cases (but not US Supreme Court), Fourth Circuit, Hostile work environment, Medical Industry Litigation, Result for Employer, Sexual harassment, Summary Judgment, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Was the boss “merely crude”, or was he sexually harassing her?

Sex­ual harass­ment claims fre­quently require judges and juries to dis­tin­guish between “merely crude” behav­ior, which doesn’t vio­late the employee’s rights, and “sex­ual harass­ment”, which does. The Fourth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals addressed that issue in EEOC v. Fair­brook Med­ical Clinic, … Con­tinue read­ing

Posted in Federal Cases (but not US Supreme Court), Fourth Circuit, Medical Industry Litigation, Result for Employee, Sexual harassment, Summary Judgment | Tagged , , | Leave a comment