For over 50 years, the United States Department of Labor’s (DOL) interpretation of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA) has remained the same. Under the LMRDA’s “Advice Exemption,” an employer is not required to report its engagement of a consultant (including an attorney) to assist in responding to a union organizing [...]
FHKAD Attorneys David A. Riepenhoff and Melanie D. Williamson secured summary judgment in a recent premises liability and injury case brought by a citizen against a City. Balzhiser v. Abby Doyle, et el., Jackson County Common Pleas No. 15PI0003 (Nov. 17, 2016). The Plaintiff Ada Balzhiser was a resident of the City of Wellston. On [...]
FHKAD attorneys Daniel T. Downey and Stephanie L. Schoolcraft secured summary judgment in a recent disability discrimination case brought by a police officer transferred to a dispatcher position. Malone v. City of Ontario, N.D.Ohio No. 1:15 CV 2456, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 153349, at *1 (Nov. 4, 2016). The Plaintiff in this case was a [...]
In August of 2015, Licking County Sheriff’s Office Detective Wayne Moore required Mark Hurst to register as a sexually oriented offender. This was in accordance with the current registration requirements corresponding with Hurst’s 2008 criminal convictions. However, Hurst was not required to register by law, because the crimes of which he was convicted did not [...]
On August 29, 2016, the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 3-0 decision in Vasquez v. Empress Ambulance Service. The Court adopted the “cat’s paw” liability theory and in doing so ruled that an employer can be held liable by the victim when its disciplinary action is influenced by a co-worker’s retaliatory [...]
In Shelton D. v. U.S. Postal Service, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) upheld a 2014 decision by its Office of Federal Operations, which held that a co-worker continuing to wear a hat with the phrase “Don’t Tread on Me” was a cognizable claim of harassment that must be investigated by the employer. The original [...]
The Ohio legislature passed House Bill 187 over the summer, and it recently went into effect on August 31, 2016. House Bill 187 authorizes emergency medical personnel to provide emergency medical services to an injured cat or dog, in the course of an emergency response, before the animal is transferred to a veterinarian. Under House [...]
On September 13th, the Ohio Supreme Court denied a court action brought to compel a police department to produce records in the case of destroyed police officer incident notes. State ex rel. Pietrangelo v. City of Avon Lake, 2016-Ohio-5725, ¶ 2. Additionally, the court found the claimant was not entitled to statutory damages under Ohio [...]
The Ninth Circuit recently decided that a citizen does not have a constitutional right to simultaneously hold a medical marijuana registry card and purchase a firearm. In Wilson v. Lynch, Wilson v. Lynch, No. 14-15700, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 16108 (9th Cir. Aug. 31, 2016), the Ninth Circuit affirmed dismissal of an action challenging federal [...]
On September 20, 2016, officials from Ohio and twenty other states filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas seeking an injunction and declaratory relief against the Department of Labor to halt implementation of new rules for overtime exempt “white collar” employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The [...]