On September 14, 2021, the co-authors of this blog post published an article entitled States – The Final Frontier: How State Law and State Courts Can Provide Avenues for Justice and Resist the U.S. Supreme Court’s “Lochner Lite” Anti-Employee and Anti-Consumer Agenda. In that article, we discussed states’ efforts to provide protection from hostile federal […]

Everyone deserves the right to choose a job where they are treated squarely and paid fairly for their hard work. Unfortunately, some abusive employers—whether businesses or individual bosses—violate this basic human right with exploitative working conditions. By abusing or mistreating workers, however, these employers may also be breaking the law; and therefore, be liable financially […]

Ever since the Gold Rush of the mid-19th century, California has attracted a large number of job seekers.  Silicon Valley is home to some of the world’s most valuable technology companies, and the Los Angeles area dominates the national media and entertainment industries.  With these booming sectors come enticing professional opportunities that appeal to people […]

The New York Times recently reported that the Trump campaign has proposed that former aide and Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman pay for an ad campaign costing over $846,000 to remedy allegedly damaging comments Newman made about the president in a recent memoir. The campaign’s suggestion came as a proposed remedy for Newman’s alleged violation […]

If you are an employee in the United States, you probably have given up your constitutional right to access the courts and receive a trial by a jury for claims against your employer, or will soon do so. Many, if not most, large employers impose arbitration agreements (sometimes misleadingly referred to as “policies”) on their […]

This month, the Supreme Court handed down a victory for cell phone users (which is practically all of us these days) in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, Inc. The case concerns the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (“TCPA”). Under the Act, anyone who makes an unsolicited robocall or text message can be […]

In California, individuals been harmed by public entities must comply with the stringent and idiosyncratic requirements of the Tort Claims Act (TCA) in order to preserve their right to pursue legal action and recover damages. While most employees have between 300 days and three years to initiate legal action against their employers, those with claims […]

401(k) documents are notoriously mystifying—and notoriously ignored. “I must say,” admitted Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at recent oral argument of the United States Supreme Court, “I don’t read all the mailings that I get about my investments.” For about 72 million American workers, 401(k)s are “nest eggs.” Employees expect their 401(k) investments, along with social […]

It’s happened to my friends and no small number of the people who call into our office. They received a job offer, or rather, they were told orally in language they cannot precisely recall, replete with reassuring gestures and talk of the future, that a business with which they have already completed the interview cycle […]

More and more, employers are forcing workers to give up their constitutional rights to seek justice in our nation’s courts. Instead of seeing their day in court, workers may be sidelined into “arbitration.” This means a private individual or “arbitrator” can decide a civil litigation case outside of court, without a judge or jury. Arbitration […]

On November 20, 2018, the Virginia Supreme Court appointed a panel of three Circuit Court judges to consider the consolidation of lawsuits previously filed in Virginia state courts against opioid manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) for their role in creating the public health emergency caused by prescription opioids. The panel was appointed in […]

America is experiencing an opioid epidemic that has resulted in economic, social and emotional damage to virtually every community in the United States and tens of thousands of Americans. It is indiscriminate and ruthless, and kills 175 Americans every day. In 2016, more than 64,000 people died of drug overdoses (and the majority of these […]

One of the biggest barriers to abuse victims’ pursuit of justice in Maryland is the strict time limits that victims have to file their claims (this is commonly called the “statute of limitations”). While research consistently demonstrates that most survivors of sexual abuse fail to report or disclose the abuse until they are at least […]

The #MeToo Movement has helped draw attention to abuse victims’ right to pursue civil claims against the perpetrators who abused them and the institutions (e.g., churches, child care centers, schools, universities, colleges, teams, and programs) who failed to protect them from being abused. The voices of survivors are growing. Still, abuse victims have not yet […]

In the landmark civil rights decision Brown v. Board of Education, the court ruled that racial segregation in the public schools was unconstitutional. But if the Plaintiffs in Brown had been subject to an arbitration agreement with their schools, public schools might still be segregated today. Today women do not have to tolerate hostile conduct […]