Free Newsletter
Employee termination best practices: Exit interviews, final paychecks
by Missy Oakley and Becky Zuschlag BridgeTower Media Newswires Exit interviews are a very useful tool and can provide valuable information to an employer to help avoid future claims and improve employee retention. They are also the perfect time to provide a departing employee with their final paycheck in compliance with Oregon’s tight timelines. Exit […]
Contract – Termination – ‘No Reason or Any Reason’ – Retaliation – Corporate
Serenity Counseling & Resource Center, Inc. v. Cardinal Innovations Healthcare Solutions (Lawyers Weekly No. 012-176-17, 10 pp.) (Lucy Inman, J.) Appealed from Guilford County Superior Court (Anderson Cromer, J.) N.C. App. Unpub. Holding: Even if defendant terminated the parties’ contract because plaintiff’s president testified against defendant in unrelated litigation, since the parties�[...]
Contract – Termination – Convenience or Cause – Refund Claim – Costs & Fee
Duke Energy Florida, Inc. v. Westinghouse Electric Co. (Lawyers Weekly No. 004-019-16, 16 pp.) (Max Cogburn Jr., J.) 3:14-cv-00141; W.D.N.C. Holding: Even though plaintiff, the owner of a nuclear power plant construction project, did not obtain a Combined Operating License by the date set out in the parties’ contract, since the parties amended the contract […]
Labor & Employment – Public Employees – Termination – No Good Cause – Inspector – Wife’s Company
Little v. Department of Transportation (Lawyers Weekly No. 040-002-16, 11 pp.) (Fred Morrison, S. ALJ) 16 OSP 05294 Holding: Although petitioner’s job with respondent required petitioner to inspect car dealerships, and although as part of petitioner’s sporadic, unpaid work for his wife’s fire extinguisher company he serviced fire extinguishers at those same dealerships, considering petitione[...]
Labor & Employment – Public Employees – Termination – Credentials – Civil Practice – Service of Process
NC Department of Public Safety v. Owens (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-215-16, 15 pp.) (Chris Dillon, J.) Appealed from Lenoir County Superior Court (Paul Jones, J.) N.C. App. Holding: The Highway Patrol acted arbitrarily when it (1) refused to allow the respondent-employee to maintain the certifications required for his job and then (2) fired him for […]
Labor & Employment – Public Employees – Termination – Just Cause – Customer Interaction – Failure to Report
Barron v. Eastpointe Human Services LME (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-102-16, 33 pp.) (Linda McGee, C.J.) Appealed from Greene County Superior Court (Paul Jones, J.) N.C. App. Holding: Petitioner’s dismissal was supported by his non-professional personal cell-phone communications with an agency customer and a failure to report that customer’s complaint. We reverse the superior court’s decision, [&[...]
Workers’ Compensation – Suitable Work – Unjustified Refusal – Termination – No-Show Policy
Morgan v. Interim Healthcare (Lawyers Weekly No. 14-16-0782, 20 pp.) (Wanda Bryant, J.) Appealed from the Industrial Commission. N.C. App. Unpub. Holding: The clerical position that defendant offered to plaintiff was within her medical restrictions; in fact, she performed the duties of the position for four hours a day after her compensable back injury. Furthermore, […]
Labor & Employment – Public Employees – Termination – Personal Misconduct – Arbitrary Decision – Bipolar Disorder – New Medication
Bulloch v. North Carolina Department of Crime Control & Public Safety Although petitioner’s voluntary consumption of alcohol contributed to his inappropriate off-duty behavior, a psychiatrist testified that petitioner’s behavior was caused by a combination of alcohol, his first dose of lithium, hypomania, and his being “relatively unmedicated for his bipolar disorder.”
Labor & Employment – Civil Rights — Race Discrimination – Retaliation Claim – Termination – FMLA Leave – Failure to Promote
Whitaker v. Nash County Although plaintiff did file an EEOC charge alleging race discrimination, since (1) her doctor would not certify her as fit at the end of her 12 weeks of FMLA leave, (2) defendants determined that plaintiff’s position was critical, and (3) plaintiff did not take defendants up on their offer to suggest accommodations, plaintiff has not shown that her termination wa[...]
Labor & Employment – Civil Rights – Race & Age Discrimination Claims – Termination – Suspicion of Theft
Stephens v. Neal’s Pallet Co. Even though plaintiff’s supervisor made two or three racist remarks about his employees, none of these remarks shared a nexus with plaintiff’s dismissal. Such evidence is insufficient to show that plaintiff was fired for discriminatory reasons.
Labor & Employment – Public Employees – Termination — Administrative – Exhaustion of Remedies
James v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Board of Education Even though petitioner basically skipped the hearing before the defendant-Board of Education (his counsel stayed only long enough to protest the timing of the hearing), petitioner nevertheless exhausted his administrative remedies by requesting the hearing and appealing the board’s subsequent decision to the superior court in acco[...]
Labor & Employment – REDA – Workers’ Compensation – Threatened Claim – Termination – Unsuccessful Training
Fatta v. M & M Properties Management, Inc. Even though plaintiff was fired shortly after he notified his supervisor that he might be filing a workers’ compensation claim, mere temporal proximity was insufficient to establish that retaliatory motive was a substantial factor in defendant’s decision to terminate plaintiff. In plaintiff’s termination letter, defendant stated that plaint[...]
Top Legal News
- Catesha Hargro: Finding pathways forward
- Cooper vetoes bill over control of election boards
- Judge dismisses state lawmaker’s defamation suit
- 5th Circuit blocks Louisiana redistricting hearings
- Bonnie Keen: Charting her own course
- Courts’ work will continue amid government shutdown
- NC lawmakers to redraw district maps again
- Mississippi activists ask to join water lawsuit
- State judge blocks gender-affirming care ban
- Menendez pleads not guilty in wide-ranging corruption case
- Lawyer in Trump-Russia probe confirmed for Connecticut high court
- Commercial vehicle crash claims life of wife, mother: $3.99 million settlement
Commentary
- Amotion sees resurgence after almost a decade
- The flip side of generative AI in law and how to address it
- The fight for equal educational opportunity continues
- Court’s term was rough on big business
- Ex-president, bar association have made their choice
- Ruling sharpens boundaries in attorney-client privilege
- Lawyers Weekly debuts new and improved web experience
- US Supreme Court bites back at parody’s use of the First Amendment
- Supreme Court leaves key internet protection untouched
- Case study: North Carolina courts provide guidance on scope, limitations of attorney-client privilege
- A Different Ode to Pro Bono Work
- A roadmap to attracting, developing, retaining great associates
