New England Biz Law Update

In what may be Rhode Island’s first ruling in a business interruption insurance coverage dispute prompted by COVID-19 shutdowns, a Providence adult entertainment venue has had mixed success in surviving a defendant insurer’s motion to dismiss. Superior Court Judge Brian ...

Management-side employment attorneys are beginning to advise their clients on what they should expect under Rhode Island’s new “pay equity” law, which after years of previous efforts by legislators gained passage in the General Assembly’s most recent session and was ...

A nonresident defendant’s contacts with Rhode Island were not robust enough to allow the federal court to exercise jurisdiction in a lawsuit accusing that defendant of breaching a noncompete agreement with his former employer, U.S. District Court Judge William E. ...

A federal judge has denied a motion by the city of Providence seeking summary judgment in a Title VII retaliation lawsuit brought by one of its employees, concluding that conflicting evidence prevented the city from articulating a “legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason” ...

With several U.S. pharmaceutical companies now conducting large-scale COVID-19 vaccine trials, employment lawyers are beginning to field queries from their corporate clients on whether their employees should be required to take the vaccine once it becomes available. As a general ...

Tagged with: employment law

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought by two women against their former employers, concluding at the summary judgment stage that the evidence was insufficient to allow their gender, age and disability discrimination claims to move forward. U.S. ...

A federal judge has found that a local union acted in good faith and therefore did not breach its duty of fair representation in not pursuing arbitration on behalf of a plaintiff member who was terminated from his job for ...

A ruling on joint motions to dismiss filed by 19 multinational oil and gas company defendants in a climate change suit brought against them by the state will have to await decisions in cases that present similar questions of “stream ...

Finding an exception to the “going-and-coming” rule enunciated by the Rhode Island Supreme Court in Branco v. Leviton Manufacturing Company, Inc. to be inapplicable, the state Workers’ Compensation Court Appellate Division vacated a trial judge’s award of benefits to a ...

Attorneys in Rhode Island say that while increased litigation appears to be imminent, insureds could face a difficult time in recouping pandemic-related losses through the business interruption provisions of their commercial insurance policies. “I see the potential for an explosion ...