Seth Leventhal writes about a very interesting case on his Minnesota Litigator blog today. A father in a custody dispute gave his daughter a teddy bear with a listening device inserted in it. The father’s lawyer then used the recordings in the divorce proceedings. The Court ruled that the father had violated the federal Wiretap [...]
Don’t Miss the Upper Midwest Employment Law Institute
The best employment law conference in the country will be at the St. Paul RiverCentre on May 23 and 24, 2011. All of the details are here. I will be speaking on Proportionality in Electronic Discovery with my friend Sean Gallagher from Denver during the very prestigious 4:00 to 5:00 slot on Monday. Luckily, there [...]
Guest Post: More scrutiny of service animals coming
Calhoun here. T.J.’s been pretty busy this week, so he’s asked me to guest post. As I was reading the Wall Street Journal yesterday, I saw the perfect item: an article on how people abuse the concept of service animals to take their pets (Iguanas!) with them, and efforts by the disability community to [...]
When will the billable hour finally die?
Lawyer have probably been discussing the death of the billable hour since, well, the birth of the billable hour. The debate continues, and some heavy hitters recently weighed in at an ABA meeting in Atlanta. Lawyers and their clients are considering new structures such as fixed fees, flat fees and success fees, among others. [...]
An event not to be missed
I will be moderating a panel discussion over the lunch hour on March 9, 2011 called “Defining Legally-Protected Conduct and Other Hot Topics in Retaliation Claims” as part of the Minnesota State Bar Association’s Labor & Employment Law Section Annual Mid-Winter Luncheon. We will have an all-star panel of Laurie Vasichek, Senior Trial Attorney at the [...]
Bans on hiring smokers spread, but not in Minnesota
Very interesting article in today’s New York Times about hospitals and other medical businesses adopting policies that prohibit the hiring of smokers in an effort to increase worker productivity, reduce health care costs and encourage healthier living. Even some anti-tobacco groups are uncomfortable with the policies, however. One professor is quoted in the article as saying: [...]
NLRB settles Facebook case: no clarity for now
It looks like the National Labor Relations Board will not weigh in on the use of Facebook in the workplace anytime soon. I wrote here about the Complaint brought by the NLRB against a Connecticut ambulance company that fired an employee after she criticized her supervisor on Facebook. The NLRB announced yesterday that it [...]
Dealing with employees who have alcohol or drug issues
Employees who have drug or alcohol issues provide employers with some of their trickiest HR problems. Attorney Carmen Couden of Foley & Lardner in Milwaukee has published a very helpful article on dealing with such employees. Among her recommendations: 1) Establish a policy that provides for severe consequences for employees who report to work under the [...]
New Minnesota Noncompete Case Addresses Interesting Issues
A new decision by Judge John Tunheim of the Federal District Court in Minnesota in GreatAmerica Leasing v. Dolan and Grissler thoroughly analyzes some unusual and interesting issues in the context of a motion for a temporary restraining order to enforce restrictive covenants against departing employees: first, whether a written document which contains a merger [...]
