New England Biz Law Update

A federal judge has determined that Rhode Island enjoys specific personal jurisdiction over an out-of-state mortgage servicer accused of breach of contract in the sale of a mortgage loan, consistent with the three-prong test used by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court ...

Weighing a plaintiff’s disability discrimination and FMLA retaliation claims under the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting paradigm, a federal judge in Rhode Island has determined they cannot withstand the defendant employer’s motion for summary judgment. The suit was brought by Lisa O’Rourke ...

Although disagreeing on the proper theoretical approach to support its decision, a three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a federal judge’s preliminary injunction blocking a CVS executive from working for a competitor for the ...

The denial of a plaintiff’s application for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits and Supplemental Security Income should be reversed and remanded in light of an administrative law judge’s faulty assessment of exertional and nonexertional “residual functional capacity,” according to the ...

With today’s increased focus on diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace, some employment attorneys are reporting that employees are raising more concerns about so-called “reverse discrimination.” “People are generally more aware now that they may have legal rights in employment, ...

Reversing its own precedent on the issue, a three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the federal False Claims Act’s first-to-file rule is nonjurisdictional, thereby limiting a court’s analysis of competing first-to-file claims to ...

A company could not be held liable for disability discrimination when it was not aware of the medical condition of a former employee who brought suit, a U.S. District Court judge in Rhode Island has held. The plaintiff, David Saad, ...

A former graduate student’s lawsuit claiming that Rhode Island College violated his rights to freedom of speech and expression and retaliated against him for his conservative viewpoints raises questions for a jury to decide and therefore should have survived the ...

In a split decision, a three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reiterated that the pleading standard for a retaliation claim under the federal False Claims Act differs from the standard applicable in a suit alleging ...

A federal judge has ruled that a cleaning company was not a “joint employer” for purposes of a wage claim under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Rhode Island Minimum Wage Act. Integral to the summary judgment ruling in ...