texas law

The 5th Cir recently ruled that a Plaintiff who had alleged sexual discrimination must allege it in the EEOC forms. Even though the Plaintiff has talked about retaliation from making a complaint of sexual discrimination to her employer she did not explicitly claim that she was sexually discriminated against and therefore the claim failed based […]

Does it matter if you are classified as an independent contractor as opposed to an employee?  Yes it does  because employees have many benefits denied to employees.  These rights include:  the ability to enforce civil discrimination laws (race gender national origin age and disability discrimination for example) the right to participate in retirement and health

In Kaup v. Texas Workforce Commission, Global Security Consulting  et al 01-14-00084-CV (Texas Court of Appeals Hourston 1st District) The court held that  because the  employer had a policy requiring permission for outside employment the employee violated the companies policy and was thus not entitled to unemployment compensation. The Court reasoned that this rule of the company constituted

Generally you have to file your claim with the EEOC (or Texas Commission on Human Rights*) within 180 days** under Texas state law.  In the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center v. Eltonsy, ___ S.W.3d ___, 2014 WL 5791554 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2014) the Court held the time runs from when the employee learns of the discrimination

Anti-retaliation laws require a plaintiff to prove the employer took a materially adverse action against the plaintiff. Courts have struggled with what is a materially adverse action.    In Halliburton v. Administrative Review Board, 771 F.3d 254 (5th Cir. 2014) the Court held that simply revealing the employee’s name was enough to show materially adverse because it subjected the employee to ridicule

The Supreme Court in the case of the United States v. Windsor struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA Section 3) as unconstitutional. Most lawyers believe that this case signals that the U.S. Supreme Court will recognize Same Sex Marriage as a constitution right for all states. This will certainly affect many laws but

Employees who work for the government have a First Amendment Right of Free Speech. However the U.S. Supreme Court has limited that right to very specific types of Speech. One of the requirements is that the speech must “Regard a Public Concern”. In Graziosi v. City of Greenville Mississippi, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 370 (5th

This is another case where the Supreme Court went out of its way to deny the poor and injured the right to a trial with a jury. Shockingly the Texas legislature had enacted Sec 74.451 of the Civil Practice and Remedy Code which put limits on arbitration agreements between doctors and patients.  The statute reads as

Title VII – the main Discrimination Statute in the United States has damage caps based on the number of employee: For employers with 15-100 employees, the limit is $50,000. For employers with 101-200 employees, the limit is $100,000. For employers with 201-500 employees, the limit is $200,000. For employers with more than 500 employees, the

Title VII – the main Discrimination Statute in the United States has damage caps based on the number of employee: For employers with 15-100 employees, the limit is $50,000. For employers with 101-200 employees, the limit is $100,000. For employers with 201-500 employees, the limit is $200,000. For employers with more than 500 employees, the