If the calls and emails coming into my office are any indication then there is a growing problem with unpaid wages, minimum wage violations, minimum wage tip violations and unpaid overtime pay here in Texas. I am getting a lot of contacts from people with unpaid wages. The Fair Labor Standards Act and the Texas […]
Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas unpaid wage claims and attorney fees Read More »
As a plaintiff’s lawyer I hear a lot of the support “tort reform” nonsense that goes around. Tort reform sounds nice. It sounds like an honest effort to eliminate abuse of the legal system. Who can’t get on board with that? I’d like to rid abuse of the legal system. The problem is tort reform
Tort Reform Garbage: “Judicial Hellholes” Read More »
Sarbanes-Oxley, passed in 2002 in the wake of the Enron disaster, includes a protection in Section 806 that employees of a publicly traded company from retaliation for whistleblowing on accounting fraud and other prohibited acts under Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). In the past, most courts held that the employees of contractors to public companies did not enjoy
Sarbanes-Oxley retaliation claims apply to employees of contractors Read More »
Back in 2012, several local Dallas, Fort Worth and Denton media outlets reported a racial discrimination suit involving a prosecutor at the Denton County District Attorney‘s office and her allegations that an assistant DA, much higher up the food chain, had made racially discriminatory remarks that constituted a hostile work environment. The trial court awarded
Denton County prevails in racial discrimination appeal Read More »
Overtime rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Texas Payday Law result in improper wage calculations in employment law. Some employers engage in illegal acts to avoid paying overtime. Many fail to fully understand when they must pay overtime and how the calculation of overtime pay must occur. (For a primer on overtime pay,
Overtime pay with personal leave in Texas Read More »
Beginning January 1, 2014, the IRS began enforcing rules on restaurant mandatory gratuities that will have an impact on both the income of tipped employees and how restaurants can get themselves in hot water with the Department of Labor and/or IRS by misapplying these mandatory gratuities. Restaurants typically charge these mandatory service charges for large
IRS Rules for Mandatory Gratuity Read More »
You request FMLA leave. Your employer requests medical certification. You provide it. Your employer approves your FMLA leave. You take leave. Then, while you are on FMLA leave, your employer is sending you requests for new medical certification? Can your employer do that? The answer is yes, under certain circumstances, your employer can request new
FMLA leave medical recertification: rules and regulations Read More »
FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) medical leave is a huge source of employment litigation in Texas and around the nation. One of the major issues in FMLA leave and FMLA litigation is how the employer calculates eligibility for medical leave. FMLA protects medical leave for qualified medical conditions up to twelve weeks within a
FMLA and twelve month period for eligibility Read More »
This month the Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral arguments on Sandifer v. U.S. Steel Corp., coming out of the Seventh Circuit, dealing with the “changing clothes” language under Section 3(o) of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Sandifer deals with a group of steelworking employees who are required to put on protective
Sandifer v. U.S. Steel Corp. — FLSA Section 203(o) Read More »
Employers who want to thin the herd of highly paid, older employees often offer early retirement incentive packages that trade off an increased pension benefit or severance package in exchange for an employee agreeing to voluntarily retire early. Early retirement is typically offered to a large number of employees before the company decides to engage
Age Discrimination and Early Retirement Incentives Read More »
In the 1990s and early 2000s, a huge swath of employers added mandatory arbitration agreements to their employment applications and shoved arbitration agreement forms in front of their current employees. It was part of a larger push for arbitrating disputes with the idea that arbitration is cheaper than litigation. Over the past decade or so
The Danger of Ignoring Employment Arbitration Agreements in Texas Read More »
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) protects the right of employees to twelve weeks of medical leave in a twelve month period so long as the employee has worked 1,250 hours in the current or prior calendar year and the employee works at a work location in which the employer employs at least fifty
FMLA leave and exempt employees Read More »
You worked for decades at an employer, retired and began receiving your defined benefit pension from your employer. You have planned your finances around your pension payments, social security and other sources of retirement savings. Then a letter shows up from the pension administrator. No, it isn’t your monthly check. It isn’t a spare check,
Pension overpayments / pension recovery: Dallas pension lawyers Read More »
The fluctuating work week is perhaps the least understood subject in wage law under the Fair Labor Standards Act. It is so misunderstood that even federal judges in Texas don’t understand it. The Fifth Circuit rejected the improper application of the fluctuating work week by the Northern District of Texas in Dallas in Black v.
Fluctuating Work Week FLSA calculations Read More »
Texas and federal discrimination law prohibit only certain types of employment discrimination. An employee may file a charge of discrimination or lawsuit on employment discrimination only for a trait protected by law. If your employer takes action against your job or compensation then you must show the employer did so because you have a protected trait. The traits
When can I sue for employment discrimination? Read More »
This week, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals published its decision in Bland v. Roberts, a First Amendment case regarding a Facebook “like”. I wrote about this case last year in my National Law Review article on social media and harassment. I contended that a “like”, “retweet” or “+1” is evidence of employee support of employment-based
A Facebook “Like” is protected First Amendment Speech Read More »
The number one mistake that almost all employees make is not keeping their employment records. If you find yourself contemplating suing your employer over wages or discrimination, having records of your employment can be useful. Even though some records may be available from your employer, some information may never reach your employment file. For example,
What employment records should I keep in Texas? Read More »
As a Dallas employment lawyer, I often write about what Texas employees should do to protect their rights but employers also play a role in ferreting out workplace harassment and discrimination. You might own a business or work in human resources and confronted with a situation where an employee alleges harassment or discrimination in the workplace. Obviously,
The attorney-client privilege protects communications between lawyers and clients when those communications are part of the lawyer providing legal services. The privilege allows the client to speak honestly with the attorney so the attorney can provide the best legal services. Without the privilege, clients may be unwilling to share critical information with their attorneys. Although the importance is obvious
What is the importance of the attorney-client privilege? Read More »
As a fellow homebrewer, unfortunately I have to tell you the answer is no, unless you obtain professional brewing licenses and sell beer from a commercial brewery or brewpub. There are a lot of misunderstandings about what you can do with your homebrew. Each state has its own laws for how much you can make and where you
I am a homebrewer, can I sell my homebrew/beer/wine/mead/cider/etc.? Read More »