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Back in March, it was reported that Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, the twins formerly of Full House fame who now own a successful fashion company, settled a wage lawsuit by former interns.  The interns claimed that they worked up to 50 hours per week doing the same type of work...

Reports from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) display an alarming trend in the number of truck fatalities over the last several years.  The FMCSA, which oversees large truck highway safety, compiles data from around the country relating to truck and highway accidents, and presents this data in several...

On March 31, 2017, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that it had settled a class action age discrimination lawsuit against the Kentucky-based steakhouse chain, Texas Roadhouse.  The lawsuit alleged that the chain did not hire individuals over the age of 40 for so-called front of the...

There's no question that cars, in general, are becoming safer.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's studies confirm as much.  The number of people injured in auto accidents in 2015 (2,443,000) was significantly lower than its recent peak, in 1996, of nearly 3,500,00.  The movement towards semi-autonomous cars is likely to lower the...

Last week, the United States House of Representatives passed several measures that could collectively be described as “tort reform.”  These include limitations on class actions, sanctions for “frivolous” lawsuits and caps on damages in medical malpractice lawsuits.  It might be easy to get on board with these measures if...

The New York Times recently reported on a massive class action case against Sterling Jewelers, the parent company of among others Jared and Kay Jewelers.  The case involves allegations of unequal pay, and includes allegations of sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation by 69,000 current and former employees of the company.

A recent article in the Albany Times Union highlighted a very common but somewhat unknown employment occurrence - the severance agreement with confidentiality provision.   The article was about four former employees of SUNY Polytechnic - the well known Albany school that for years was led by...

The ride share company Uber has had a rough couple of weeks.   First, the company was jolted when a former employee wrote a blog post detailing her experience with sexual harassment while employed as an engineer.  Then came revelations of an altercation between Uber's CEO, Travis Kalanick,...

Organizers of the Women's March have designated March 8 (International Women's Day) as “A Day Without a Woman”.  They are calling for a general strike, meaning women would not attend work, school, shop or perform domestic duties, among other things.  More on that here. While there...

A blog post by a former employee of the ride sharing company, Uber, has been making serious waves in the news world of late.   In the post Susan Fowler, a former engineer at the company, describes among other things her significant problems in dealing with both