Proposed legislation would revise Michigan’s business courts. It would provide several revisions, including a change that will be important concerning non-compete disputes.
Michigan experimented with creating a “business court” docket in 2011 in Macomb County Circuit Court. The experiment expanded into Kent County in March 2012 and Oakland County in July 2012. Then in 2013,
On Monday, May 15, 2017, Uber Technologies, Inc. narrowly sidestepped what could have been a complete shutdown of its autonomous vehicle program. Specifically, a federal district court judge declined to issue a temporary injunction against Uber and its self-driving car program. A copy of the order is available here, Waymo LLC v.
Non-compete agreements are intended to prevent unfair competition. But they often create unfair advantages against employees and start-ups. And these unfair advantages adversely affect individuals and the overall economy. At least that is the take-away from a recent op-ed in the New York Times.
Specifically, Prof. Orly Lobel wrote in
Last week, ESPN laid off 100 employees. This included well-known SportsCenter anchors and popular writers who are subject to noncompete restrictions. A lot of ink has been spilled about the causes for these layoffs. See, for example,
A lot of ink has been spilled about the causes for these layoffs. See, for example, ESPN is
Last year we reported on an important LGBT case involving a Michigan corporation that fired a transgender female employee (EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc.). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) argued Title VII’s ban on sex discrimination prohibits bias based on gender identity. The funeral home’s majority shareholder claimed
Bloomberg Business Week recently featured a story about the South’s manufacturing renaissance. The article, by Peter Waldman, is titled Inside Alabama’s Auto Jobs Boom: Cheap Wages, Little Training, Crushed Limbs.
The workplace injuries and deaths described are simply horrific. Here are a few examples:
Ownership disputes between employers and employees over social media accounts (think Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn) are becoming more frequent. This point is highlighted in a wrongful termination lawsuit between Tomi Lahren, a former “reporter” and her employer, TheBlaze. TheBlaze is owned by Glenn Beck. Ms. Lahren was terminated after she made political statements that ran
Employers should carefully evaluate their employment agreements with a focus on eliminating provisions that may be unlawful, given a recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling. Specifically, DISH Network was ordered on April 13, 2017, to revise or rescind its employment agreements after the NLRB found the agreements contain provisions that violate federal labor law.
A former employee’s accessing a Google Drive he set up for his employer may result in a violation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). This case also serves as a reminder to carefully evaluate how your company uses any third-party services like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
Employers have a new concern with job offers and social media; In what appears to be a first, a federal court of appeals held an employer could be liable for rescinding a job offer because the prospective employee signed an online petition supporting issues under the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA).
Specifically, in Linkletter v.