A suite of bills aimed at further enhancing protections for both employees and independent contractors regarding discrimination, harassment and retaliation in the workplace are on the horizon in New York State. Several of these bills, if ultimately enacted, would potentially lead to a groundbreaking shift in how employers approach settlement of discrimination, harassment and retaliation
As has been long anticipated, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently gave a green light to plaintiffs’ attorneys seeking a fee award under the Commonwealth’s Payment of Wages Act, even where an action ends in settlement. The Wage Act (Mass. General Laws ch. 149 §§ 148, 150) awards costs and fees when an
One potential early approach to a class action is to “decapitate” it — to knock out the claims of the class representative(s), often by finding some deficiency in their individual claim that supports a motion to dismiss or for summary judgment. Another approach, though, is to settle with the named plaintiffs. That buys no peace with other class members, of course, and so isn’t necessarily the end of the story, but in some cases plaintiffs’ counsel may find recruitment of class reps to be challenging and a decapitation strategy may have more lasting effect.