Why is Texas No. 1 in discrimination charges filed with the EEOC?
To paraphrase the title of Megadeth's debut album, Killing Is My Business . . . And Business Is Good: Discrimination is my business, and business is good.
View ArticleCourt Finds Texas Company Stole Trade Secrets after Hiring Employee from...
In late May, after a three-week trial, a Houston federal court jury ruled M3 Technology, Inc. had misappropriated trade secrets from innovative engineering software provider AspenTechnology, Inc.,...
View ArticleThe Mutual Benefits Of Nonsubscription In Texas
As the burden of ever-increasing regulatory and administrative costs hinders job growth and company viability, recent news stories have sharply criticized Texas employers that elect not to carry...
View ArticleTexas Supreme Court Advisory on Attorneys' Fees in TCHRA Cases
A short message to plaintiff's attorneys in TCHRA cases from the Supreme Court: join your defense brethren in "measuring out your life with coffee spoons," i.e. keeping contemporaneous time records of...
View ArticleOh, how times have changed: The 2012 Texas Supreme Court nixes workers' comp...
It's 1988. The Texas Supreme Court, in full populist tilt, creates a new cause of action that workers can assert against workers' compensation carriers: breach of a duty of good faith and fair dealing.
View ArticleSubset of age discrimination cases is DOA under Texas law
Exalting expediency over individualized decision-making, the Texas Supreme Court has dealt a death blow to a subset of age discrimination cases in which a terminated employee is replaced by someone older.
View ArticleTexas Supreme Court refuses to engraft Ledbetter Act onto the Texas...
Back on April 27, 2010, I wrote about a decision by Houstons 1st Court of Appeals. Cue the time machine:
View ArticleTexas AG: Employers Cannot Impose Handgun Bans by Penal Code Notice or under...
Beginning in 2011, Texas law prohibits most public and private employers from preventing employees who otherwise lawfully possess a firearm or ammunition from transporting or storing those items in a...
View ArticleIs The EEOC Messing With Texas?
Texas companies may be feeling the heat of potential Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigations, including the agencys recent strategy of focusing on class-based situations against...
View ArticleIllegal Workers Can Recover Lost Wages for Texas Tort Claims
A recent decision from the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas held that federal immigration laws do not preclude illegal workers from recovering damages, including lost wages, for Texas tort...
View ArticleBad Day for Whistleblowers in Texas
One of the most important things about whistleblowing or retaliation claims are that they are almost always created by statutes, so the statutory language is critical. Today the Texas Supreme Court...
View ArticleTexas Lawmakers, Attorney General Move to Strengthen Texas Right-to-Work Law
Matching bills introduced in the Texas House and Senate would amend the Texas right-to-work law to require that labor unions be elected in a secret ballot election by a majority of employees in the...
View ArticleTexas May Become 48th State to Adopt the Uniform Trade Secrets Act
Since being approved in 1979, the Uniform Trade Secrets Act has been adopted, in some form or fashion, by 47 states. At least one Texas lawmaker hopes to make Texas the 48th to do so. With S.B. 953, a...
View ArticleTexas Employers Gain Statutory Protection for Trade Secret Information
Texas has joined 47 other states and the District of Columbia in adopting the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. The new law, Texas Senate Bill 953, which will go into effect on September 1, 2014, provides a...
View ArticleNew Texas State Court Rules For Motions To Dismiss And Expedited Trials
Effective March 1, 2013, the Texas Supreme Court revised the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure by 1) allowing defendants, for the first time in Texas state court practice, to file the equivalent of a...
View ArticleStuck In A Background Check Catch-22? Texas Has Your Back
Employers seem to be caught in an impossible catch-22 these days: run a background check on a job candidate and risk a potential discrimination lawsuit or forego this procedure and risk exposing the...
View ArticleNew Texas Trade Secret Law Takes Effect September 1
The Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (TUTSA or the Act) takes effect on September 1, 2013, and will apply to the theft of trade secrets occurring on or after that date. While trade secrets have long...
View ArticleHR employee holds onto retaliation win at Fourth Court of Appeals
In a case thats troubling for Texas employers but exciting for employees, the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio affirmed a big payday judgment for a plaintiff in a retaliation case under the...
View ArticleWhich Arbitration Agreement Clauses Will Texas Courts Find Unconscionable?
In recent years, courts have consistently supported employers use of arbitration agreements in employment settings. During the last few terms, the Supreme Court of the United States has issued several...
View Article5th Circuit Short Circuits Plaintiff's Use of State Court
In certain parts of Texas, plaintiffs seek to avoid being in federal court at all costs. Today, the 5th Circuit clarified a procedural hurdle to that tactic in a small category of cases.
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