New England Biz Law Update

A Cambridge software company could pursue statutory false advertising claims against a competitor that touted on its website a “white paper” disparaging the plaintiff’s products without disclosing that the defendant had commissioned the study, a U.S. District Court judge in ...

Claims by two female employees that their former supervisor subjected them to a hostile work environment based on their gender and retaliated against them when they complained of the discrimination presented genuine, material disputes of fact foreclosing summary judgment in ...

A Brown University student who was disciplined for cheating on a take-home exam could not bring contract and tort claims against the school for her punishment, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled. The university’s Committee on the ...

Customer service representatives at the call center of a company that sells internet-based home security systems were entitled to Sunday “premium pay” under state wage and hour law, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge in the Business Litigation Session has ruled. ...

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act implicitly provides a “reasonable reliance” defense for companies accused of making unwanted pre-recorded solicitation calls, a U.S. District Court judge has determined. Defendant Boston Scientific Corp., a medical device manufacturer that partnered with health clinics ...

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 ...

A school principal who received a negative evaluation and was reassigned to what she deemed a lesser position could not bring claims for retaliation and hostile work environment, a U.S. magistrate judge in Rhode Island has ruled. Plaintiff Nadine Lima, ...

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Massachusetts has ruled that a Chapter 7 trustee could not sell the debtor’s automobile policy back to his insurance carrier to settle a dispute over the validity of a pre-petition waiver of coverage of ...

The commercial custodian of non-discretionary individual retirement accounts did not owe a fiduciary duty to a named beneficiary of those accounts, but the beneficiary could maintain a suit under the consumer protection statute, G.L.c. 93A, by credibly alleging that the ...

Not surprisingly, attorneys who represent employers and those who represent employees disagree on both the process and potential end result of Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s move to use a supplemental spending bill to respond to a decision by the Supreme ...