On April 11, 2014, I had the privilege of speaking at the 39th Annual Labor and Employment Law Institute sponsored by the Institute for Continuing Legal Education (ICLE).  The topic was Anatomy of a Whistleblower Retaliation Lawsuit.  We used the fact pattern from the case Thompson v Aramark Scho...

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ("ADA") was passed with much fanfare, but the act's narrow interpretation by the courts has meant that very few employees with disabilities were protected by the statute. In order to receive protection, employees needed to show "an impairment which subs...

Clients and potential clients often have questions about the process involved with filing a wrongful discharge lawsuit.  Common questions include:  How long will it take?  What will I have to do?  What is mediation? General answers to these questions and many others can be found at a web site af...

The Harvard Law & Policy Review (Winter 2009, volume 3, number 2) recently published an analysis of employment discrimination claims filed in Federal courts. The authors conclusions: (1) the number of cases filed in Federal courts have dropped dramatically, nearly 40 percent since 1999, (2) e...

More often than not, a termination of employment is completely lawful and cannot be challenged in court.  Employees who are fired for legitimate reasons, such as misconduct at work, poor attendance, downsizing, etc., have no recourse to court. Even some employees who are fired for dumb reasons, f...

Since most employees are "at-will," when can employees sue their employer when they think they have been wrongly fired? Most employees must be able to fit their situations into one of the at will exceptions discussed in the previous post.  For example, an employee who takes an FMLA leave has the...

This is a new blog discussing employment law issues.  It is written by an attorney in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  For information about me, see http://www.bosglazier.com/brad_glazier.shtml. In this blog, I will be sharing information about what facts make a good employment lawsuit, the at-will empl...

In Public Act 269 of 2011, which became effective on December 28, 2011, the Republican Legislature passed and Governor Synder signed a bill that will make it tougher for workers to collect unemployment benefits. Here is a link to an analysis and summary of the new law prepared by Legislative Anal...

The Michigan Supreme Court issued a decision that expands upon the Public Policy Exception to the at-will employment rule.  On July 21, 2009, in McNeil v Charlevoix County, the court ruled that a local health department rule that prohibited employers in Charlevoix County from discharging or retal...